Study Finds Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Outcomes Among Voucher Holders

By Tyler Eutsler, NLIHC Research Intern 

A recent Urban Studies article,  “Entering and Leaving Housing Assistance: Neighborhood Trajectories of Housing Voucher Recipients in the United States,” explores changes in neighborhood characteristics for low-income households before, during, and after they participate in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. Analyzing changes in neighborhood characteristics across thousands of households reveals that, although entering the HCV program did not lead to significant improvements in neighborhood poverty, exiting the program was associated with a statistically significant decrease in neighborhood poverty among white, Hispanic, and Asian households but not Black households. The author notes that, despite this racially disparate outcome, the HCV program—the nation's largest housing subsidy program—is an essential policy tool that delivers vital economic and residential stability.  

Using U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) data on voucher households and Census Bureau data on renter households and neighborhood characteristics, the author measured residential trajectories for voucher and non-voucher renter households from 2000 to 2018. The factors examined included neighborhood poverty rate, neighborhood racial composition, and the distance households moved from their initial location. The author used these neighborhood characteristics to assess how the HCV program influences recipients’ exposure to concentrated poverty and racial segregation.  

Findings indicate that recipients who entered the HCV program had no statistically significant changes in neighborhood poverty. This suggests that although receiving a voucher influences residential movement, it doesn't necessarily impact whether Housing Choice Voucher participants move to higher or lower poverty neighborhoods. 

Households that exited the HCV program observed larger decreases in average neighborhood poverty rates than participants who remained in the program. However, stark differences were present and varied by the race of voucher recipients. Hispanic, Asian, and white voucher recipients who exited the program experienced significant decreases in neighborhood poverty rates relative to both their pre-voucher and their voucher locations with white recipients experiencing the largest decrease. However, Black recipients did not experience a statistically significant change in poverty after exiting the program and remained in neighborhoods with similar poverty rates. 

In addition to neighborhood poverty, the author analyzed the racial and ethnic composition of neighborhoods. Similar to the findings on neighborhood poverty, Hispanic, Asian, and white voucher recipients generally moved to neighborhoods with significantly lower shares of non-white residents upon exiting the program. Black households did not move to neighborhoods with fewer non-white voucher holders, suggesting persistent segregation and constraints on neighborhood choice for Black voucher recipients. 

Voucher holders face a number of barriers to neighborhood mobility that contribute to the outcomes observed in this study. Fair Market Rent limits make it difficult to lease in higher-income neighborhoods where rents are typically higher. Source of income discrimination also further limits housing options for voucher holders. The racially disparate outcomes for voucher households observed by the author, however, highlight the central importance of race in shaping neighborhood mobility. The author concludes that, while the voucher program often falls short in improving mobility outcomes, this should not overshadow its primary role in promoting housing stability.

Read the article here.