Residential mobility of Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program recipients: Assessing changes in poverty and racial composition in neighborhoods

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is the largest federal low-income housing program serving 1.8 million households nationwide. The HCV program serves to promote economically mixed neighborhoods (deconcentration), residential mobility among the recipients, and desegregation. This study evaluates the locational outcomes of the HCV program recipients in Columbus, Ohio from 1999–2005 against the program’s policy goals of deconcentration and desegregation by examining the change in poverty and change in racial composition from pre to post-move neighborhoods. The results reveal that the mobility of recipients does not predict a change in poverty and a recipient’s race does not predict a change in racial composition in neighborhoods. The findings suggest that the HCV program policy goals of deconcentration and desegregation are currently being met in Columbus, Ohio.