Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

How do housing programs affect the life chances of disadvantaged youth? And how important are the neighborhood conditions generated by these programs in explaining these effects? This paper examines these questions using data from a novel housing assistance lottery in a large urban county, which generated separate, random offers of housing vouchers and public housing admission for a large sample of disadvantaged applicants. Using data from housing assistance applications linked to rich longitudinal data from several sources, I investigate how vouchers and public housing affect children’s participation in crime, neighborhood quality and homelessness.  The lottery design also enables comparisons of the effects of voucher receipt relative to public housing admission. Finally, I explore the heterogeneity of program effects by initial housing stability and initial neighborhood conditions.