Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper examines whether in places among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country Housing Choice Voucher Recipients (HCVRs) cause crime using data from HUD’s Picture of Subsidized Housing and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports over the 2000 period.  First difference regression strategies as well as lags of crimes rates and leads of HCVR changes are used to assess the causal impact of HCVRs on crime.  Moreover, the potential differential effects of HCVRs on crime are examined across important characteristics such as place size, its type (city versus suburbs), race of the HCVR, and the specific crime committed.