Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Launched in early 2018, CMTO in Seattle and King County rigorously tests a mobility program that assists new recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) in the housing search and lease up process. It draws on pioneering research by Chetty and colleagues to identify “opportunity neighborhoods” where low-income children growing up in those neighborhoods have historically achieved greater upward economic mobility as adults.

The CMTO evaluation, designed around the model described in the first presentation, assesses whether a robust set of mobility services increases the rate at which families move to higher opportunity neighborhoods and their long-term persistence in those neighborhoods. Both participating housing agencies have utilized their Moving to Work designation to increase the rent a voucher can cover, a necessity in a tight housing market. CMTO builds on those higher payment standards to provide services that aim to educate families on opportunity areas, increase search assistance and landlord outreach, and reduce financial barriers faced by families interested in moving to high opportunity areas.

New HCV recipients who volunteered to participate in CMTO were randomly assigned to a program or control group: the program group was offered mobility services in addition to their voucher and control group members received a voucher and standard services provided by the housing agencies. The study enrolled approximately 500 families with children ages 14 and younger.

This presentation will discuss early results from the CMTO evaluation, including the impacts of the program on families' residential mobility outcomes. The presentation will also describe a second phase of research with the Seattle and King County Housing Authorities, which is designed to help unpack the effects of different service components offered to families through CMTO.