Housing

  • Matthew Desmond
  • Rebecca Diamond

Leaders: Matthew Desmond, Rebecca Diamond

The Housing RG is tasked with exploring the the inner workings of disadvantaged neighborhoods and the low-cost housing market, with a focus on (a) the relationship between housing, employment, and poverty, (b) the causes, dynamics, and consequences of eviction, and (c) the effectiveness of housing vouchers and other housing programs. A sampling of our ongoing projects follows.

Evictions and poverty: Are evictions an important cause of deep and extreme poverty? In collaboration with Raj Chetty, Matt Desmond is starting a project on the long-term consequences of eviction that will reveal the extent to which deep and extreme poverty can be reduced with a “housing first” policy that ramps up federal housing programs.

Housing voucher policy: The U.S. currently spends approximately $20 billion per year on subsidized housing vouchers, but 80 percent of these vouchers are used in moderate- or high-poverty neighborhoods, where opportunities for upward mobility are typically limited. Can voucher policies be recast to increase the number of families moving to “high opportunity” neighborhoods?

CPI Collaborators

Jens Ludwig's picture Jens Ludwig McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law, and Public Policy, Director, University of Chicago Crime Lab, Co-Director, University of Chicago Urban Education Lab
University of Chicago
Francesca Mari She is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and others. She is a 2022 National Fellow at New America and a 2023 Radcliffe Fellow.
Thomas McDade's picture Thomas McDade Carlos Montezuma Professor of Anthropology; Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research; Director, Laboratory of Human Biology Research
Northwestern University
Lisa Sanbonmatsu Senior Researcher
NBER
Heather L. Schwartz's picture Heather L. Schwartz Associate Director, RAND Education, Policy Researcher
RAND Corporation

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