Webinar Slides:
Participant Word Cloud:
This webinar roundtable focused on the expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program, which is part of the Biden-Harris agenda and likely to be considered as part of the federal budget for fiscal 2022. A panel of housing policy experts and leaders of public housing authorities discussed why a greatly expanded program is needed, how rapidly an expansion could take place (given the capacity of the current administrative system), and how the expansion can support and promote racial justice. The panelists also discussed improvements that should be implemented as the program is expanded. These include streamlining the program, creating incentives for landlords, and a national law prohibiting discrimination against renters who will be using a voucher to pay part of the rent.
Moderator:
- Jill Khadduri, Abt Global
Panelists:
- Adrianne Todman, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO)
- Andrew Lofton, Seattle Housing Authority
- Richard Monocchio, Housing Authority of Cook County
- Douglas Rice, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Meryl Finkel, Abt Global
Watch the Video:
Insights and Impact
Family Options: Finding the Best Interventions to End Homelessness for Families
More than 150,000 families experience homelessness each year and are forced to seek emergency shelter or face life on the street. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wanted to understand the most effective options to help these families.
Using an Expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program to Improve Equity for Black Households at Risk of Homelessness
Forty percent of all people who experience homelessness are Black. This reflects, in part, the higher levels of poverty among Black people compared with White people, the product of centuries of discrimination in employment and education. Poverty among people of color is likely to get worse as a result of job loss during the COVID pandemic. But housing discrimination also has had an important role, because of its profound intergenerational effects. Abt’s Jill Khadduri explains that the Housing Choice Voucher program is time-tested and successful in providing stable, affordable housing to people of all races and ethnicities—in particular, to Black households. The voucher program should be expanded to promote racial equity and made even more successful during an expansion.
Examining Effects of Small Area Fair Market Rent on the Housing Choice Voucher Program
Housing Choice Vouchers let residents choose housing units that meet rent and quality guidelines. Using a single metropolitan-wide standard to set the maximum subsidy for voucher holders can limit recipients’ access to neighborhoods with high-performing…
The Effects of Small Area Fair Market Rents on the Neighborhood Choices of Families with Children
This article from Abt and New York University explores the efficacy of one particular policy reform aimed at encouraging moves to higher opportunity neighborhoods: Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs), which are vouchers that vary with ZIP Code rent levels. (“Higher opportunity” is determined by poverty rates, the proficiency levels of local elementary schools, proximity to jobs and environmental hazards.)SAFMRs do not appear to affect overall move rates. But, families with children who do move are much more likely to move to higher-opportunity ZIP codes. This research, together with recent literature on the long-term effects of children living in high-opportunity neighborhoods, suggests that the implementation of SAFMRs may achieve some gains in the intergenerational economic wellbeing of low-income families receiving housing choice vouchers.Read about our SAFMR work.
Impact of Expanded Choice on Attrition in the Housing Voucher Program
In this article, we estimate the effect of the introduction of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs), vouchers (which promote moving to higher-opportunity neighborhoods) on the length of participation in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. The study finds that the introduction of SAFMR increased program attrition, particularly among working-age adults and in households living in low- and average-rent areas at the time of program introduction. These findings highlight the need for additional research to determine the factors resulting in program attrition.