In enacting Section 152 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, Congress created the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration program. Congress designed MTO as a controlled social experiment to determine the effects on families' housing, employment, and educational achievements that are caused by their moving from high-poverty neighborhoods to low-poverty neighborhoods. MTO will enable HUD to measure the impact of neighborhood location and amenities on very low-income, public housing families with children. Using tenant-based rental assistance and supportive counseling services, MTO will allow HUD to test the hypothesis that providing public housing residents with the opportunity to move from troubled, low-income neighborhoods will help them escape poverty over the long term. HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) recently issued Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing: Current Status and Initial Findings, which includes background on the demonstration program, as well as the results of initial research on the program and its participants. The report first outlines the background and organization of MTO, as well as its design and implementation by PD&R. It also gives information on the legislative origins of MTO. The final sections of the report focus on data about participating families' residential mobility. Using guidelines provided by Congress, HUD selected five large metropolitan sites for the demonstration: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The local MTO programs were established as partnerships between public housing agencies (PHAs) and one or more local, nonprofit counseling agencies. Each program had to match local funding to Federal counseling funds. To be eligible for the program, families had to live in public or subsidized housing developments located in neighborhoods in which at least 40 percent of the population was below the poverty line. Families also had to have at least one child under the age of 18 and had to be income-eligible for the Section 8 program. There have been previous research efforts to help determine the effect of moving low-income families out of high-poverty neighborhoods. Most notable among these was the Gautreaux program in Chicago, which began in the 1970s. These previous research projects were subject to self-selection bias-it is possible that only the most motivated families volunteered or were selected to participate. Thus, the research could not determine whether favorable results occurred because of the moves or because only the most motivated people participated. PD&R designed MTO as a multisite experimental demonstration to address this bias. Public housing families that volunteered for the MTO program were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the MTO treatment group, a Section 8 comparison group, or an in-place control group. The MTO treatment group received Section 8 certificates or vouchers that were usable only in low-poverty areas (areas with less than 10 percent of the population below the poverty line in 1989). This group also received counseling and assistance from a nonprofit organization to find rental units. The Section 8 comparison group received regular (geographically unrestricted) Section 8 certificates or vouchers in addition to the normal assistance provided to Section 8 recipients by the PHA. The in-place control group continued to receive project-based assistance in their high-poverty neighborhoods. The MTO demonstration thus allowed HUD to answer the fundamental policy question of whether geographically restricted rental assistance combined with counseling is an effective means for enabling public housing residents to move to low-poverty neighborhoods and whether such moves promote economic and social self-sufficiency. Between 1994 and 1999 the PHAs and their partner nonprofit organizations implemented their demonstration programs by recruiting families, determining eligibility, providing counseling and search assistance, and administering the Section 8 program. The MTO demonstration provided Section 8 assistance to 3,170 families at all sites. Upon its completion in spring 1999, more than 1,650 families had found new homes in rented houses or apartments using Section 8 under MTO. An additional 1,440 families were assigned to the in-place group and continued to receive project-based assistance. The report notes that the final lease-up rate for the MTO experimental group (48 percent) was comparable to the rate of the Section 8 comparison group (60 percent). On the basis of this evidence, the report concludes that MTO is having a positive impact on families' lives. Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing: Current Status and Initial Findings discusses the lessons learned about critical parts of the demonstration, including the ability of the families to find homes in low-poverty areas and key characteristics of the housing counseling provided. HUD will continue to track the participants for a period of 10 years following their initial receipt of MTO housing assistance. After this period, HUD will survey participants on their experiences in moving to low-poverty areas. This long-term study will serve as the basis for a final evaluation of the effectiveness of the demonstration. HUD will begin work early next year on an interim evaluation of the effects of the MTO program. Order Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing: Current Status and Initial Findings from HUD USER for $5. Use the order form. |
