The federal government spends more than 40 billion dollars every year on different housing programs and policies designed to improve the housing and neighborhood environments by low-income families. Much of this effort is directed towards families living in concentrated poverty. Recent research shows that neighborhood conditions during childhood play an important role in determining later-life outcomes of low-income children. Yet, there is little rigorous evidence on which types of housing and neighborhood policies and interventions are effective in improving long-run and intergenerational economic and social outcomes for low-income families. This project uses long and linked administrative data and experimental methods to study the long-term and multi-generational effectiveness of different housing and neighborhood policies targeted toward low income families. The results of this research project will provide evidence on the type of housing interventions that are effective in improving the livings standards of poor households as well as study the multi-generational effects of such housing policies. In addition, it will provide guidance on crafting and implementing the most effective housing policies that have long-term positive benefits across generations. In so doing, the research project could also help establish the US as a global leader in how to provide efficient housing for the poor.
This project, consists of three studies, investigates the long-term effectiveness of various public housing programs in improving the living standards of beneficiaries across generations. The first study uses a randomized housing assistance wait-list to evaluate two of the largest federal low-income housing programs: public housing and housing vouchers. The second study leverages newly linked administrative data to re-examine one of the earliest housing mobility programs to assess the very long-run effects of housing mobility interventions. The third study examines the multi-generational effects of three place-based policies targeted to disadvantaged areas. These studies bring together rigorous research designs and linked longitudinal administrative data on outcomes such as earnings, employment, college attendance, financial strain, health, and mortality to provide new evidence on the effects of a range of housing and neighborhood policies on the economic opportunities and well-being of low-income families in the U.S. The results will inform optimal design of federal housing and neighborhood policies. More broadly, this work will enhance social science knowledge by investigating how and why some housing and neighborhood policies create long-run economic opportunity for the children and adults, and others do not.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
