Atlanta's Last Demolitions and Relocations: The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Resident Satisfaction

Abstract

Using data from an Atlanta-based longitudinal study following 311 public housing residents relocated between 2009 and 2010 as the city's housing authority demolished its remaining public housing, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between changes in relocated residents' satisfaction with home and neighborhood and the socioeconomic, racial composition, and crime characteristics of their destination neighborhood. Consistent with previous research, we find that residents moved to somewhat safer neighborhoods with less poverty than those of the public housing. In addition, we find that residents view their new homes and neighborhoods as improvements over public housing. However, subjective pre- to postmove changes in satisfaction are not driven by changes in neighborhood characteristics (i.e., reductions in poverty and crime), but rather by decreases in perceived social disorder and increases in community attachment. Thus, our findings challenge some of the assumptions of poverty deconcentration. Policy implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Public housing demolition
• housing choice vouchers
• USA
• relocation
• Atlanta

Acknowledgements

Support for this study was provided by NSF grant # SES-0852195; University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research; as well as the Partnership for Urban Health, the Center for Metropolitan and Urban Studies, and the College of Arts and Sciences of Georgia State University. Opinions expressed reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting entities. We thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and critiques.

Notes

¹ Descriptive analyses identified no outliers or distributional issues for medium-receiving tracts.