The Examiners Are:

Dr. Dan Immergluck (Chair)

Dr. Bruce Stiftel

Dr. Michael Elliott

Dr. John Peponis

Dr. Kirk McClure

Faculty and students are invited to attend this examination.

Abstract:

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is the largest federally subsidized affordable housing program in the U.S., assisting over 2.1 million low-income households to find and obtain decent rental housing units in preferably higher-quality neighborhoods, in an effort to deconcentrate poverty and alleviate living standards for program participants.  Though the program has had some success in achieving this goal, there is continuing evidence that it has yet to realize its full potential, where the distribution of HCV households is quite uneven with several clusters of these households still situated in extreme poverty neighborhoods.

In light of the recent foreclosure crisis, the impediments of this goal of the HCV program, may have been further exacerbated as a large growing number of HCV tenants have experienced involuntary eviction due to rental property foreclosures.  Due to these untimely evictions and limited resources and savings at their disposal, it would appear a daunting task for HCV households to find a suitable relocation home in preferably a neighborhood of similar or better quality.  Further adding to their difficulty in obtaining a quality home is that the volume of affordable housing is in continuous decline across the U.S.  However, due to the massive amount of foreclosures and the depressed housing market for homeownership, there is evidence that a plethora of owner-occupied units are being converted into rental housing units in a diverse income range of neighborhoods.

In this regard, this dissertation has endeavored to shed light on whether the new rental housing supply created from previously foreclosed properties, has assisted the HCV program’s goal of poverty deconcentration.  Accordingly, three large central metropolitan counties were analyzed using exploratory spatial data analysis, descriptive statistics, and multivariate negative binomial regression.

The dissertation finds that though HCV households have dispersed widely, the distribution is quite uneven.  Also, the share of HCV households residing in high-poverty neighborhoods is shown to have increased over time.  Foreclosures appeared to have played a role in this distribution change, as foreclosure are found to have a positive effect on HCV residencies in a neighborhood.  Finally, the impact of foreclosures was found to be greater in lower-income higher-minority neighborhoods compared to higher-income lower-minority neighborhoods.  As such, the findings suggest that policymakers need to strengthen protection for renters facing foreclosure, provide better relocation counseling, and increase HCV availability, in order for the HCV program to further achieve its goal of poverty deconcentration.