HUD Releases Updated Data on Tenant Characteristics

HUD’s Office of Policy Development & Research released new 2012 tenant-level Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data. The data are drawn from a 5% sample of all households receiving assistance through HUD’s major programs: the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), Public Housing, Project-based Section 8, and Section 202/811. The household-level data covers family type, income, race, gender, and housing cost burden. The data also covers geographic details, such as the poverty rate of the census tract where tenants live. HUD stresses that the dataset upholds the privacy of individual households, which are not identified in the dataset. Researchers must request access to the data on an individual basis, and must provide a legitimate research purpose for using the data. Prospective data users must register in order to gain access to the data: http://bit.ly/yTqbee