Evaluating School Quality of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients.

Breazeale, Grace; Webb, Michael D.; Rohe, William M.

In recent years, many have become increasingly concerned that the Housing Choice Voucher program (HCV, also known as 'Section 8') is not meeting its goal of providing affordable housing to low-income families while promoting access to high-opportunity areas. As school quality is inherently related to neighborhood opportunity, this paper analyzes the achievement, growth, and overall performance of schools to which elementary school-aged children in HCV families are assigned in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our analysis indicates that students in families that receive vouchers are assigned schools of worse quality than the schools of the students in the two comparison groups. Our findings highlight the importance of including school quality as a measure of neighborhood opportunity in developing future implementation strategies for the Housing Choice Voucher program.

CHARLOTTE (N.C.); HOUSING vouchers; SCHOOL rankings; SCHOOL buildings; LOW-income housing; NEIGHBORHOODS

Southeastern Geographer, 2020, Vol 60, Issue 2, p100

0038-366X

Academic Journal

10.1353/sgo.2020.0010