Deconcentrating the poor via public housing policy: What really matters?. (September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lee, Han Bum; McNamara, Paul E.
• Is Part Of: Socio-economic planning sciences. Number 59(2017)
• Page Start: 67
• Page End: 78
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Subjects: Housing Choice Voucher -- Residential location decision -- Housing search counseling; R23 -- R28; Planning -- Periodicals; Economic policy -- Periodicals; Social policy -- Periodicals; Planification -- Périodiques; Politique économique -- Périodiques; Politique sociale -- Périodiques; ECONOMIC PLANNING; SOCIAL PLANNING; DECISION-MAKING; 361
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2017.01.004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0121

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores the role of costs of moving in Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) households' residential location choices and performs a policy simulation predicting the impact of geographically targeted rental subsidies and housing search and counseling services on voucher holders' locational choices. We choose households that received housing vouchers from 2008 to 2010 in the twin cities of Champaign-Urbana in Illinois and track their residential locations using restricted-use administrative data. We adopt the Mixed Logit (ML) approach to model voucher holders' locational choices accounting for heterogeneous preferences over costs of moving factors and dwelling and neighborhood attributes. Our main findings show that the HCV households are responsive to costs of moving indicating that there is a strong disincentive for the moves. The ML model results reveal a high level of statistical significance of heterogeneity in preferences among the HCV households providing empirical evidence to support previous literature that recipients would face different levels of costs of moving based on their socio-economic characteristics. The estimates also suggest that geographically targeted rental subsidies exert a larger relocation effect, moving 22.87% of high-poverty residents into low- and mid-poverty neighborhoods, when they are combined with a local housing authority's housing search counseling and supportive services. Highlights: Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) households are responsive to costs of moving factors. Find a strong disincentive for the internal relocation and search costs in destination neighborhoods. Provide empirical evidence to support heterogeneity in costs of moving by recipients' socio-economic characteristics. Provide insight into the need for designing a differentiated policy reflecting such heterogeneity in relocation costs.