Moving to Opportunity

Moving to Opportunity Moving to Opportunity was a randomized housing relocation experiment funded in the 1990s by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and evaluated by researchers at institutions including Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, and New York University. The program offered housing vouchers to low-income families in high-poverty neighborhoods to move to lower-poverty areas, and its results influenced debates involving figures and entities such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Alan Greenspan, Michelle Obama, and organizations like the Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, and Rand Corporation. Major analysts and authors who engaged with the program included Raj Chetty, Isaac Sorkin, Jordana Maister, Lawrence Katz, Ellen Dunn, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Susan Mayer, Greg J. Duncan, Patrick Sharkey, Nicholas Bloom, Richard Rothstein, Bruce Western, Stephan Thernstrom, John M. Quigley, Kris Marsh, Orley Ashenfelter, and Thomas J. Sugrue.

Background and Design

The initiative originated amid policy discussions in the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton and was administered by Henry Cisneros at HUD with design input from economists and sociologists at Harvard University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan. Drawing on earlier mobility efforts such as the Housing Choice Voucher Program and lessons from landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education and policy reports by the Kerner Commission, proponents referenced research by scholars affiliated with Columbia University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and New York University. The randomized controlled trial structure reflected methods used in studies at RAND Corporation and in public health trials with collaborations among National Bureau of Economic Research, National Institutes of Health, and the American Economic Association research community. Designers debated measurement approaches with statisticians from National Science Foundation, demographers at Brookings Institution, and criminologists associated with Johns Hopkins University and Rutgers University.

Implementation and Participants

Between 1994 and 1998, HUD enrolled participants from public housing and Section 8 waiting lists in cities including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Antonio. The sample included families recruited through local housing authorities such as the New York City Housing Authority and municipal offices in collaboration with nonprofits like Enterprise Community Partners, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and National Low Income Housing Coalition. Participants were randomized into groups managed in coordination with researchers at Harvard Kennedy School, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, University of Chicago Harris School, and evaluation teams from Abt Associates and MDRC. Fieldwork engaged caseworkers linked to agencies including Welfare Reform offices, Child Welfare League of America, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and community organizations such as ACLU, NAACP, United Way, and YMCA. Follow-up surveys drew on instruments and administrative data from state agencies in California, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and linked to school records from districts like Chicago Public Schools and New York City Department of Education.

Outcomes and Findings

Major published findings appeared in outlets and working papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, journals associated with American Economic Association, and books by scholars at Princeton University Press and Harvard University Press. Analyses by researchers including Raj Chetty, Lawrence Katz, Susan Mayer, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Greg J. Duncan reported heterogeneous effects: improvements in adult physical and mental health and reductions in neighborhood crime exposure for some groups, contrasted with limited short-term gains in adult employment and earnings noted by analysts at Brookings Institution and Urban Institute. Long-term follow-ups by teams at Harvard and Stanford University detected meaningful gains in college attendance and earnings for children who moved at younger ages, echoing findings by economists at National Bureau of Economic Research and demographers at Columbia University. Criminologists at Rutgers University and University of Pennsylvania linked moves to changes in victimization rates, while public health scholars affiliated with Johns Hopkins University documented changes in asthma and stress outcomes. Policy reviews in publications from Brookings Institution, American Prospect, and The Economist synthesized these complex and often age-dependent results.

Criticisms and Limitations

Critiques emerged from scholars and advocates at Century Foundation, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Richard Rothstein, Bruce Western, Patrick Sharkey, and commentators in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. Limitations cited included selection biases despite randomization, attrition issues highlighted by statisticians at National Bureau of Economic Research and RAND Corporation, limited voucher uptake documented by local housing authorities such as Chicago Housing Authority, and constraints imposed by landlord practices and exclusionary zoning studied by planners at Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and scholars at University of California, Los Angeles. Legal scholars from Yale Law School and Harvard Law School examined fair housing implications alongside litigation histories involving Shelter and Tenants' Rights groups. Others noted that structural factors analyzed by sociologists at University of Michigan and historians at University of Pennsylvania—including mass incarceration trends referenced with Sentencing Project data and regional labor market shifts studied by Bureau of Labor Statistics—limited the generalizability of findings.

Policy Impact and Reception

Moving to Opportunity influenced policy debates among policymakers in the United States Congress, HUD secretaries including Andrew Cuomo (later governor), think tanks such as Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, and advocacy groups like National Low Income Housing Coalition and Habitat for Humanity. It informed subsequent programs and pilots in cities partnering with foundations such as the Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and philanthropic initiatives at Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Internationally, researchers at World Bank and organizations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development referenced the experiment in designing urban poverty interventions. The debate over Moving to Opportunity has featured in hearings before committees chaired by members of United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and analyses by budget offices such as Congressional Budget Office, shaping debates over housing vouchers, mobility counseling, inclusionary zoning policies involving Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and interagency collaborations with Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education.

Category:Housing programs in the United States