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Subgroups
Public housing authorities in each city advertised the MTO intervention to potentially eligible families. Families that expressed interest in participating were placed on a waiting list in each intervention site. Waiting list families then received additional information about the study through a series of group orientation sessions, and if still interested in participating, the head of household completed a screener survey and formally consented to participate. MTO administrators reviewed these screeners to identify families eligible for participation (those with at least one child younger than 18 who were also eligible for Section 8 housing vouchers). Eligible families subsequently enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions; this review focuses on those families randomly assigned to housing vouchers and mobility counseling, and families randomly assigned to receive no intervention services. The proportion of families randomly assigned across conditions changed during the intervention to increase take-up of housing vouchers, which was lower than initially projected. The analyses adjust for changes in the probability of random assignment over time, using sampling weights equal to the inverse of the probability of random assignment to the intervention condition at the time a given participant was randomly assigned.
Families were randomly assigned between 1994 and 1997. The final evaluation collected data in 2007.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was the primary sponsor of the MTO evaluation.
At the time of random assignment, all families in the study sample were eligible for Section 8 housing vouchers and had at least one child younger than 18. About 62 percent of the final evaluation sample was African American, and 31 percent was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Just 11 percent of sample members were married. Fifty-five percent of the baseline sample had at least a high school diploma or GED, although 72 percent were unemployed. Seventy-five percent of families received Aid to Families with Dependent Children/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and 80 percent received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The average total household income was $12,872 annually. Nearly all adult baseline survey respondents (98 percent) were female.
State public housing authorities and nonprofit counseling organizations
MTO began with the random assignment of the first intervention households in 1994. The program was authorized by the U.S. Congress in the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.
Between 1994 and 1998, MTO offered Section 8 vouchers to families with low incomes in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York who (1) lived in public housing or private assisted housing projects in high-poverty neighborhoods (defined as census tracts with more than 40 percent of the population living below poverty) and (2) who had at least one child younger than 18. Private assisted housing projects are rental housing built by private owners through federal programs that required them to price some units to be affordable to people with low incomes. These vouchers subsidized the cost of renting private housing in low-poverty neighborhoods (defined as census tracts with less than 10 percent of the population living below the federal poverty line). Intervention participants also received counseling services and special assistance from local nonprofit counseling agencies to help them find and lease eligible private rental units. The intervention only required families to use their voucher in low-poverty areas for one year, after which families could use their subsidy to relocate without geographical restriction. Intervention condition families who relocated from their low-poverty communities within the first year of the intervention did not receive a new voucher in the second year. Intervention participants were required to observe Section 8 policies that limit the amount of time voucher recipients have to secure housing, require voucher recipients to contribute 30 percent of their adjusted income to rent, and prohibit illegal drug use or alcohol abuse.
Families with low incomes in the comparison condition were offered neither Section 8 housing vouchers for private housing in low-poverty neighborhoods nor counseling services or special housing search assistance. Comparison group families were not prohibited from continuing to receive housing assistance for public or private assisted housing in high-poverty neighborhoods. Like families in the intervention condition, those in the comparison condition had at least one child younger than 18 when the intervention began.
None
Families in the intervention condition who signed leases did so between December 1994 and March 1999. Program services were available for up to four years.
MTO was authorized by the U.S. Congress in the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.
The MTO demonstration took place in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Mobility counseling services were provided to intervention condition participants by nonprofit counseling agencies at each site.
Housing status; housing assistance; housing and neighborhood conditions and safety; adult physical and mental health outcomes; household income; food security.