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The deconcentration of poverty in the US has involved both voluntary mobility programmes for low-income households and involuntary relocation of families through government action. This paper examines the effects on families of these two different strategies. Using data on over 600 families in the Twin Cities region of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, the study reveals only sporadic support for the hypothesis that voluntary or involuntary participants in the deconcentration effort will report improvements in their living conditions, or report better conditions than a control group of public housing and Section 8 residents. Several possible explanations for the lack of programme effects are offered.

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Public housing authorities (PHAs) across the country are demolishing and selling off public housing units. Although some of the units are being replaced in mixed-income developments, most are not; the subsidies instead are being shifted into household-based vouchers. Thus, in most cases the loss of these units is a permanent reduction in the nation's public housing stock. Demolition efforts are more extensive in some cities than in others. This paper analyzes public housing removal in the largest cities of the United States to explain the pattern of demolitions taking place. The analysis reveals that public housing removal is most prevalent in cities facing gentrification pressures, and in cities in which the management of public housing by the local housing authorities was subpar. Public housing removals are also associated with higher levels of racial segregation and violent crime.