The Effects of Rental Assistance Programs on Neighborhood Outcomes for U.S. Children: Nationwide Evidence by Program and Race/Ethnicity

《The Effects of Rental Assistance Programs on Neighborhood Outcomes for U.S. Children: Nationwide Evidence by Program and Race/Ethnicity》

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作者: Andrew Fenelon

来源: URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW,Vol.59,Issue3,P.

语言: 英文

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摘要: IntroductionPersistent racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic status (SES) in the United States to a large extent reflect unequal access to advantageous social environments, including safe, high-opportunity neighborhoods (Chetty and Hendren 2018; Wilson 1987). Significant racial inequalities in exposure to neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage reflect long-term racial segregation that characterizes the residential geography of U.S. cities (Massey and Tannen 2015). Throughout the life course, Black and Latino individuals tend to live in poorer, older, more economically disadvantaged, and more segregated neighborhoods than White Americans, even holding socioeconomic characteristics constant (Huang et al. 2020). Although Black-White differences in neighborhood disadvantage have narrowed in the past 40 years, high-income Black families still tend to live in neighborhoods with similar poverty rates to those of low-income Whites (Firebaugh and Farrell 2016). Similarly, Latinos are less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to successfully translate economic mobility into neighborhood opportunity (Riley, Hawkley and Cagney 2016). While high SES does not guarantee access to low-poverty neighborhoods for Black and Latino families, low-SES families of color often have few options for accessing high-opportunity neighborhoods (Huang, South and Spring 2017; Lee, Smith and Galster 2017). For example, recent estimates suggest that 20 percent of poor White children reside in neighborhoods characterized as very low opportunity, in contrast to 50 percent of poor Latino children and 66 percent of poor Black children (Acevedo-Garcia et al. 2020).Federal rental assistance programs from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offer the opportunity to improve access to high-opportunity neighborhoods for low-income families and reduce racial disparities in neighborhood disadvantage. However, the potential for rental assistance to improve neighborhood outcomes depends heavily on the type of program and the surrounding metropolitan context. For example, project-based housing programs (which include both public housing developments and privately-owned subsidized housing, typically referred to as multifamily housing) may limit geographic mobility and increase children's exposure to high levels of neighborhood poverty, family instability, and reduced economic opportunity. In contrast, housing vouchers are theoretically more flexible, and may provide access to high-opportunity, low-poverty neighborhoods by allowing families to rent in the private market. In practice, empirical evidence that vouchers reduce exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods is mixed (Ellen 2020), and little is known about whether there are racial differences in the effects of rental assistance on neighborhood outcomes nationwide.We draw on individual-level data from a unique national survey-administrative data linkage to assess the effect of major rental assistance programs on exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and opportunity among U.S. children. Specifically, we examine differences in neighborhood disadvantage between children who are receiving rental assistance and children who are not receiving assistance but will enter assisted housing in the near future. We compare the effects of project-based housing programs and housing choice vouchers on an index of neighborhood disadvantage, as well as the likelihood of living in high-poverty neighborhoods and low-poverty neighborhoods. Additionally, we examine whether effects differ by the race/ethnicity of the child. We find that living in project-based housing leads to greater exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods while receiving vouchers is associated with reduced exposure to neighborhood disadvantage, both by approximately one-fifth of a standard deviation. Notably, we find that the effects of vouchers on reduced neighborhood disadvantage are limited to Black and Latino children.