IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v56y2019i10p2092-2111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Safety net? The use of vouchers when a place-based rental subsidy ends

Author

Listed:
  • Vincent J Reina

    (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

  • Ben Winter

    (Los Angeles, USA)

Abstract

The US government moved to a private ownership model for providing affordable housing in the 1960s, which resulted in millions of housing units being developed and governed by affordability restrictions that expire at some later point. By 2010, thousands of tenants lived in properties where a private owner, or US Department of Housing and Urban Development, terminated the rental subsidy, and many more will face this reality going forward. Households in the project-based Section 8 programme are offered a voucher when the subsidy contract ends. This as of right voucher represents the only federal rental safety net programme in the USA. Despite this reality, little is known about what happens to tenants when a subsidy contract ends, including whether or how they use their vouchers. This paper creates a national census of every tenant who lived in a property in the USA where the project-based Section 8 subsidy ended through 2010 to analyse this event. The analysis includes a series of models that analyse what factors are associated with voucher use, moves, and opportunity moves. This paper finds that the voucher is not used by the majority of households, despite high levels of household demand for the subsidy. Those who use the voucher and move tend to move to lower poverty tracts. However, the subsidy offers the weakest safety net for households where the head is older than 62 or Black.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent J Reina & Ben Winter, 2019. "Safety net? The use of vouchers when a place-based rental subsidy ends," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(10), pages 2092-2111, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:10:p:2092-2111
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018782407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018782407
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018782407?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Lens & Vincent Reina, 2016. "Preserving Neighborhood Opportunity: Where Federal Housing Subsidies Expire," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4-5), pages 714-732, September.
    2. Lance Freeman, 2011. "The impact of source of income laws on voucher utilization," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 297-318, September.
    3. Robert Collinson & Peter Ganong, 2018. "How Do Changes in Housing Voucher Design Affect Rent and Neighborhood Quality?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 62-89, May.
    4. Robert Collinson & Ingrid Gould Ellen & Jens Ludwig, 2015. "Low-Income Housing Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 2, pages 59-126, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Reina, Vincent & Begley, Jaclene, 2014. "Will they stay or will they go: Predicting subsidized housing opt-outs," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Brian A. Jacob & Jens Ludwig, 2012. "The Effects of Housing Assistance on Labor Supply: Evidence from a Voucher Lottery," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 272-304, February.
    7. Molly W. Metzger, 2014. "The Reconcentration of Poverty: Patterns of Housing Voucher Use, 2000 to 2008," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 544-567, July.
    8. Phillips, David C., 2017. "Landlords avoid tenants who pay with vouchers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 48-52.
    9. Reina, Vincent & Begley, Jaclene, 2014. "Reprint of “Will They Stay or Will They Go: Predicting Subsidized Housing Opt-Outs”," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 122-137.
    10. Shroder, Mark, 2002. "Locational Constraint, Housing Counseling, and Successful Lease-up in a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 315-338, March.
    11. Lawrence F. Katz & Jeffrey R. Kling & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2001. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 607-654.
    12. Xavier de Souza Briggs & Jennifer Comey & Gretchen Weismann, 2010. "Struggling to stay out of high-poverty neighborhoods: housing choice and locations in moving to opportunity's first decade," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 383-427, June.
    13. Michael D. Eriksen & Amanda Ross, 2013. "The Impact of Housing Vouchers on Mobility and Neighborhood Attributes," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 41(2), pages 255-277, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William N. Evans & David C. Phillips & Krista Ruffini, 2021. "Policies To Reduce And Prevent Homelessness: What We Know And Gaps In The Research," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 914-963, June.
    2. William N. Evans & David C. Philips & Krista J. Ruffini, 2019. "Reducing and Preventing Homelessness: A Review of the Evidence and Charting a Research Agenda," NBER Working Papers 26232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Martin, Hal & Phillips, David, 2022. "Landlords and access to opportunity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Dionissi Aliprantis & Hal Martin & Kristen Tauber, 2020. "What Determines the Success of Housing Mobility Programs?," Working Papers 20-36R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 19 Oct 2022.
    6. Phillips, David C., 2017. "Landlords avoid tenants who pay with vouchers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 48-52.
    7. Eric Chyn & Lawrence F. Katz, 2021. "Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 197-222, Fall.
    8. Dionissi Aliprantis & Francisca G.-C. Richter, 2020. "Evidence of Neighborhood Effects from Moving to Opportunity: Lates of Neighborhood Quality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 633-647, October.
    9. Boarnet, Marlon G & Bostic, Raphael & Williams, Danielle & Santiago-Bartolomei, Raul & Rodnyansky, Seva & Eisenlohr, Andy, 2017. "Affordable Housing in Transit-Oriented Developments: Impacts on Driving and Policy Approaches," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt487994z4, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    10. Hyslop, Dean R. & Rea, David, 2019. "Do housing allowances increase rents? Evidence from a discrete policy change," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    11. Ellen, Ingrid Gould, 2020. "What do we know about housing choice vouchers?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Raya, Josep Maria & Torres-Pruñonosa, Jose, 2022. "The importance of administrative data in the evaluation of the incidence of social housing allowance programmes," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Peter Bergman & Raj Chetty & Stefanie DeLuca & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz & Christopher Palmer, 2024. "Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1281-1337, May.
    14. Ning Zhang, 2022. "In-kind housing transfers and labor supply: a structural approach," Economics Series Working Papers 992, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    15. Lee, Han Bum & McNamara, Paul E., 2017. "Deconcentrating the poor via public housing policy: What really matters?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 67-78.
    16. Dionissi Aliprantis & Hal Martin & David Phillips, 2019. "Can Landlords Be Paid to Stop Avoiding Voucher Tenants?," Working Papers 19-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    17. Dauth, Wolfgang & Mense, Andreas & Wrede, Matthias, 2024. "Affordable Housing and Individual Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 17359, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.
    19. Ingrid Gould Ellen & Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, 2020. "Do Vouchers Protect Low-Income Households from Rising Rents?," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 260-281, April.
    20. Cody Cook & Pearl Z. Li & Ariel J. Binder, 2023. "Where to Build Affordable Housing? Evaluating the Tradeoffs of Location," Working Papers 23-62, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:10:p:2092-2111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.