Do Better Neighborhoods for MTO Families Mean Better Schools?

Abstract

For roughly half a century, policymakers and researchers have debated the impacts of place, and in particular of inner-city neighborhoods, on employment, education, and mental and physical health. Research on programs that help people move to better neighborhoods has suggested that such programs can improve the life chances of low-income, mostly minority adults and, in particular, their children. One important way children might benefit is by having access to better schools. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration (MTO) in 1994 in five cities-Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York (see text box on page 11)-to try to improve the life chances of very poor families by helping them leave the disadvantaged environments that contribute to poor outcomes in education and employment. The demonstration targeted families living in some of the nation's poorest, highestcrime communities-distressed public housing-and used housing subsidies to offer them a chance to move to lowerpoverty neighborhoods. The hope was that moving would provide these families with access to better schools, city servicespolice, parks, libraries, sanitation-and economic opportunities. Participation in MTO

Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?

“…Schools are one particularly important type of institutional resource, and differences in school quality are widely thought to explain neighborhood effects on academic achievement (e.g., Arum 2000;Ferryman et al 2008;Galster 2012;Johnson 2012).…”

Housing Search Frictions: Evidence from Detailed Search Data and a Field Experiment

“…This pattern of segregation is particularly true for the recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), a 20 billion dollar federal program that helps low-income families pay for their rent (Ellen et al, 2016;HUD, 2011). While low-income families may prefer neighborhoods for reasons other than schools, such as proximity to their family or employment, there may be frictions that impede their choices as well (Ferryman et al, 2008;Rhodes and DeLuca, 2014;Bergman et al, 2019). This paper investigates one such friction: whether families lack information about school quality at the time of their housing search.…”

“…Low-income families may prefer neighborhoods in areas with low-quality schools for a number of reasons, such as proximity to their family or employment. However, there may be frictions that impede their choices as well (Ferryman et al, 2008;Rhodes and DeLuca, 2014;Bergman et al, 2019). This paper contributes to our understanding of low-income households' demand for schools and neighborhoods by quantifying the importance of one such friction: whether families lack information about school quality at the time of their housing search.…”

Context matters : a multilevel analysis of patterns of mobility to non-poor neighborhoods for poor renter households.

“…Improvements in neighborhood poverty rate were eroded for some of the multiple-movers. Even after moving to neighborhoods that were safer and less-poor, families often did not gain access to better skills or jobs (Cove, Briggs, Turner, & Duarte, 2008;Ferryman, Briggs, Popkin, & Rendon, 2008).…”