The Effect of Housing Choice Voucher Households on Neighborhood Crime: Longitudinal Evidence From Dallas Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Tenantbased housing assistance is designed to provide access for lowincome households to a wider range of housing options, deconcentrating poverty and reducing the exposure of these households to negative conditions. Yet an observed coincidence of crime and subsidized households indicates that something is going wrong. Either households are constrained in their choices and are settling in highcrime neighborhoods, or these households bring crime with them, using vouchers to penetrate otherwise lowcrime neighborhoods. We use longitudinal data from Dallas to assess whether changes in the number of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) households are related to changes in crime, not just whether HCV households are present in highcrime neighborhoods. The evidence supports the hypothesis that observed relationships between crime and HCV households result from a lack of units that accept vouchers in areas that have lower levels of crime. The hypothesis that voucher holders are the cause of increases in neighborhood crime is not supported.

published proceedings

  • POVERTY & PUBLIC POLICY

altmetric score

  • 4.5

author list (cited authors)

  • Van Zandt, S. S., & Mhatre, P. C.

citation count

  • 9

complete list of authors

  • Van Zandt, Shannon S||Mhatre, Pratik C

publication date

  • September 2013

publisher