Comment on Victoria Basolo and Mai Thi Nguyen's “Does mobility matter? The neighborhood conditions of housing voucher holders by race and ethnicity”

Abstract

Basolo and Nguyen examine the variation in the quality of neighborhoods where households in the Santa Ana, CA, Housing Choice Voucher Program reside. They find that the program is not helping most participating households move to significantly better neighborhoods. The authors identify obstacles confronted by participating households—obstacles indicating that it may be time to rethink the workings of the program.

For the voucher program to address the goals of deconcentrating poverty and racial minorities, intensive housing placement assistance is needed. Such assistance would guide households out of their impoverished neighborhoods and into neighborhoods where an influx of poor households would do no harm. While this may mean some reduction in the freedom of choice participating households enjoy, it could greatly improve the capacity of the program to serve the national goals of deconcentration of poverty and minorities.

Keywords:

• Housing assistance programs
• Mobility
• Neighborhood