We examine job-related social processes and outcomes in a randomized housing experiment in which "treated" families relocated from public housing in high poverty, inner-city neighborhoods to privately run housing in low poverty ones. We test three hypotheses about how exiting the ghetto might affect employment-spatial mismatch, networks, and norms-with a unique, mixed method strategy. Combining qualitative interviews, ethnographic fieldnotes, and survey data on the adults with census and administrative data on the changing geography of jobs, we conclude that the lack of generalized treatment effects for job-ready participants so far owes to: the challenges of securing jobs-housingsupport matches where the markets are turbulent and informal social support is vital but unpredictable; and the challenges for parents of "converting" new locations into new social and institutional resources while retaining pre-move resources, such as accessible childcare. Yet neighborhoods can matter (as locations) even where neighbors do not: "Successful" relocation actually led to a loss of spatial access to entry-level job centers, new job creation, and net job growth, but relocating enabled some youth to build much more diverse friendships and a broader repertoire of "soft skills" that they perceive to be important for upward mobility-notwithstanding some pains of acculturation. These findings indicate the usefulness and limits of a broadly targeted, relocationonly policy strategy for the inner-city poor, as well the dangers of assuming that less poor neighborhoods are advantageous for poor residents across the board.
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