The Housing Choice Voucher program is intended to provide new opportunities for low-income Americans to live in higher-priced neighborhoods, but few recipients of vouchers are taking full advantage of those opportunities.

A new report evaluates the effectiveness of the Housing Choice Voucher program in Harris County, home of Houston in Texas. An article promoting the new study explains the key findings:
This research finds that some voucher holders in Houston are indeed using the program to move into areas with higher incomes and likely higher opportunities. However, only 10% of voucher holders moved in the year of our analysis, meaning that the majority are not taking advantage of all the possibilities created by the voucher program.
John Park, a research fellow from the Kinder Institute, and Kyle Shelton, the Kinder Institute’s deputy director, authored the report. More information on the study's methodology and findings is available in an article published by Mirage News.
FULL STORY: Housing Choice Voucher Mobility in Harris County

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