Neighborhood Opportunity and Satisfaction Among Housing Choice Voucher Recipients: A Subjective Well-Being Perspective

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes how different neighborhood opportunity characteristics are associated with Housing Choice Voucher recipients’ subjective well-being, as measured by neighborhood satisfaction. We focus on this topic because subjective well-being is linked to a variety of important outcomes, such as health, productivity, and social relationships. Thus, a complete understanding of how opportunity neighborhoods impact low-income households’ lives requires consideration of subjective well-being. Relying on a sample of Housing Choice Voucher recipients living in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that neighborhood opportunity indicators are not strong predictors of neighborhood satisfaction after controlling for perceptions of neighborhood conditions and household composition. This result suggests that mobility to opportunity neighborhoods may not result in corresponding increases in neighborhood satisfaction and, thus, subjective well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• neighborhood opportunity
• vouchers
• neighborhood satisfaction

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Atticus Jaramillo

Atticus Jaramillo is a PhD candidate in the Department of City & Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a research associate at the Center for Urban & Regional Studies. His research interests include low-income housing policy, neighborhood disadvantage, and policy evaluation methods.

William M. Rohe

William M. Rohe is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor in the Department of City & Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael D. Webb

Michael D. Webb is the Research Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.