Using Networks to Understand Housing Voucher Take-Up
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.22104
Low participation rates in government assistance programs are a major policy concern in the United States. In the paper Housing Voucher Take-Up and Labor Market Impacts published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the researchers attempt to identify factors of successful lease-up when a household is offered a housing voucher. Identifying factors that predict lease-up can help eliminate impediments to their participation. To address this question, the study uses data from a housing lottery in Chicago where authorities offered Section 8 vouchers to 18,109 households from 1997 to 2003.
Despite being one of the most generous and largest U.S. social programs aimed at motivated families, structures behind housing vouchers restrict participation, particularly in large cities where the lease-up rate is often near just 50 percent. The low take-up rates are even more surprising when considering that housing assistance is not an entitlement. Unlike other social programs, housing vouchers are offered to families who are aware of and sufficiently motivated to apply for assistance. Although the low take-up rates may be surprising among a program that requires motivation, the structure of the program may explain why families struggle to reap the benefits. While other benefit programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and food and nutrition service for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) rely on retailers to accept non-cash payments, landlords must accept the non-cash payments from housing vouchers. Unlike SNAP and WIC, landlords have more room to discriminate against voucher-holders. Similarly, the costs of using a housing voucher, including search and moving, are often much higher than the costs of using other social programs. These costs can require enough resources and time that utilizing the voucher may not be worth the investment. While Section 8 housing vouchers is one of the largest and most generous programs, structures that enable discrimination and unfair costs discourage participation among motivated families.
Although factors like employment, imprisonment, and income are more predictive, one of the main predictors that the researchers find is the networks in neighborhoods that allow information about housing vouchers to flow. If an individual is near a neighbor who recently received a housing voucher, the individual is 3% more likely to lease up themselves. This finding reveals the importance of networks in public assistance programs specifically housing vouchers. Because navigating landlords and the housing voucher program can be difficult, having a neighbor or peer who recently successfully took advantage of a housing voucher can be an important resource to families. These neighbors can offer advice that saves time and resources when taking up a housing voucher. In response to the findings of the importance of networks for this social welfare program, the researchers present several policy recommendations that take advantage of networks. First, the researchers suggest housing authorities cluster voucher offers within neighborhoods. The networks within these neighborhoods will allow more vouchers to be taken-up. Moreover, the researchers suggest that housing authorities do not offer smaller numbers of vouchers across neighborhoods citywide. If housing authorities separate these families, they are unable to make the connections necessary to navigate these institutions without the support of their networks.