Neighborhood Choices: Section 8 Housing Vouchers and Residential Mobility

In the 1980s and 1990s, finding that significant numbers of families receiving housing assistance were concentrated in high-poverty, inner-city neighborhoods, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched initiatives to provide greater opportunities for families, moving away from project-based assistance to tenant-based housing subsidies. The Section 8 housing certificate program expanded to include vouchers that gave families wider geographic latitude in their search for housing.

Neighborhood Choices addresses the possibility of achieving the benefits of housing mobility offered by the Section 8 program while maximizing the degree of choice for householders. Varady and Walker address several questions relating to families receiving vouchers including: Will they choose to move to areas offering greater opportunities? What are the experiences of residents making the journey to more diverse neighborhoods? How can moves to better quality neighborhoods be encouraged within the regular Section 8 program?

The focus of this book is the experiences of families receiving Section 8 housing vouchers in two programs: (1) the “vouchering out” of four federally subsidized private developments and (2) the Section 8 program in Alameda County, where many inner-city families in Oakland and Berkeley were moving to suburban locations in the county—unlike in other metropolitan areas. This book’s research will inform mobility policies and program design to ensure that the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program achieves its program hallmark of residential choice and mobility for all program participants.