Constraints and opportunities for innovation in the Moving to Work Demonstration Program

Yerena, Anaid; Walter, Rebecca J.; Colburn, Gregg; Pederson, Melony; Fyall, Rachel; Crowder, Kyle

doi:10.1080/08882746.2019.1706067

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…9 Geographically, 27 percent of agencies were in the South, 18 percent were in the North, and 41 percent were from the West. Eight housing agencies in the sample currently participate in HUD's Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration (Walter et al 2020).…”

Section: Data and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program

McCabe

2022

Am Sociol Rev

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Sociological studies of poverty governance investigate how state actors manage marginalized populations, regulate their participation in social institutions, and reform their behavior through systems of punishment and rewards. Research in this area considers a range of institutions involved in managing poverty, but it has largely ignored an institution omnipresent in the lives of the poor—public housing agencies (PHAs). Focusing on the Housing Choice Voucher program, the largest rental assistance program in the country, I examine discretionary choices made by PHAs that affect who gets access to rental assistance, how long clients have to wait, and what they must do to maintain their benefits. I ask how these administrative decisions create successive opportunities for state agencies to govern the poor. Drawing on interviews with agency officials, I describe a tripartite process of selecting market-ready households, engaging them in rituals of market formation, and utilizing market nudges to remind them of their responsibilities as market actors. This framework deepens sociological understandings of how local state agencies utilize discretionary choices in a resource-scarce, highly decentralized policy environment to evaluate, reform, and discipline the poor.

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Section: Data and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program

McCabe

2022

Am Sociol Rev

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“…Neighboring states often face similar housing market dynamics and housing stock challenges. For example, Walter et al (2020) documents the different types of housing stock challenges housing organizations face in highcost western states with rental subsidies compared to aging housing stocks in the northeastern portion of the country. Also, given the race-to-the-bottom theory, the geographical neighbor is an important benchmark in incentivizing/deterring groups of people.…”

Section: Neighbor Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Diffusion in a Redistributive Policy: Affordable Housing and State Housing Trust Funds

Flink

Walter

2021

State and Local Government Review

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Diffusion models explore the reasons policies transfer across governments. In this study, we focus on U.S. state level efforts in affordable housing. Drawing predominately from policy diffusion literature, our research examines the determinants of the creation of state Housing Trust Funds (HTFs). We utilize event history analysis with logit regressions and survival modeling to examine how problem severity, neighbor adoption, economic standing, elected leadership, housing investment, and demographics predict state HTF adoption. Results indicate that both problem severity and elected leadership predict the adoption of HTFs. This work improves our understanding of state policy diffusion and efforts in housing affordability.

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“…In practice, the demonstration program operates against the backdrop of growing austerity measures across many of HUD other programs. Increasingly, the flexibility afforded by the MTW demonstration program had allowed PHAs to use funds allocated for HCVs to leverage and backfill funding gaps brought about by retrenchment in other programmatic areas (Webb et al, 2016;Walter et al, 2020). To some extent, PHAs participating in the MTW program have also experimented with the recalibration of HCV subsidy level in order to incentivize moves to higher opportunity areas.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

It Is Not Always Sunny in San Diego for Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Holders: The Reproduction of Racial and Socioeconomic Segregation under the Choice Communities Initiative

Patterson

Silverman

Wang

2021

J of Pol Practice & Research

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This article examines residential mobility patterns of housing choice voucher (HCV) holders in San Diego, CA. It focuses on whether HCV holders moved to higher opportunity ZIP codes following the adoption of the Choice Communities Initiative by the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) in 2018. This initiative was designed to incentivize moves to high opportunity ZIP codes using tiered rent subsidies. The analysis is based on a dataset that combines two sources. One includes data obtained from the SDHC measuring: race, ethnicity, gender, household characteristics, rent subsidy levels, and residential mobility for 11,126 HCV recipients. The other includes small area fair market rents (SAFMRs) for ZIP codes in San Diego. Data were analyzed using GIS maps and logistic regression. The results indicate that patterns of racial and socioeconomic segregation have been reinforced in San Diego. Most HCV moves happened within the lowest opportunity ZIP codes, regardless of races. Moves to higher opportunity ZIP codes were impeded due to the inversion of rent subsidies. Rent subsidies were set relatively higher in low opportunity ZIP codes when compared with high opportunity ZIP codes. The findings identify areas where specific policies related to the setting of rent subsidies can be strengthened in order to promote opportunity moves. In a broader context, they highlight the importance of fidelity to programmatic goals in the policy implementation process.

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Constraints and opportunities for innovation in the Moving to Work Demonstration Program

Cited by 6 publications

References 19 publications

Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program

Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program

Policy Diffusion in a Redistributive Policy: Affordable Housing and State Housing Trust Funds

It Is Not Always Sunny in San Diego for Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Holders: The Reproduction of Racial and Socioeconomic Segregation under the Choice Communities Initiative

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