Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Over 2 million households receive federal housing subsidies that allow them to rent in the private rental market. A large majority of these households use their vouchers in moderate- or high-poverty neighborhoods. The promising results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) study, which demonstrated that the neighborhoods that children grow up in have a long-term impact on their lives (young children who grow up in higher opportunity neighborhoods are more likely to go to college and earn more in adulthood), has spurred PHAs to develop a new generation of mobility-focused interventions. Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO), a collaboration between the Seattle Housing Authority, King County Housing Authority, academic researchers, and MDRC, is one such effort.

CMTO focuses on helping families with young children access high opportunity neighborhoods. As with the rest of the nation, most families with housing choice vouchers in the Seattle and King County area currently live in areas with low rates of upward mobility. To address the mobility challenges of voucher families, CMTO offers: information to educate families about potential opportunity areas; marketability coaching to help them increase their competitiveness for rental units by addressing credit history and preparing a narrative; housing search assistance to help them identify suitable units; financial assistance to defray the costs of applying for and securing rental housing; and landlord engagement and expedited lease-up services to encourage CMTO participation and expand involvement in the voucher program.

This presentation will describe the intervention design effort from the perspective of the housing agencies: the factors that shaped the design of this mobility intervention, the design considerations, and the tradeoffs that needed to be balanced to design a testable and scalable mobility initiative. The presentation will also offer design insights and observations for practitioners and policymakers.