Safe, but Could Be Safer: Why Do HCVP Households Live in Higher Crime Neighborhoods?

AbstractThe radical growth in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) during the past 25 years has benefited subsidized households, granting them access to a greater array of neighborhoods. Although HCVP households tend to live in safer neighborhoods than households in supply-side subsidized housing, they still lag behind the general population in terms of neighborhood safety.This article identifies the urban spatial characteristics that lead HCVP households to live in higher crime neighborhoods. Using census tract-level crime and housing data on 91 U.S. cities in 2000, I estimate a set of regression models that find that three housing market variables have strong associations with the crime exposure of HCVP households: (1) the percentage of renters located in high-crime neighborhoods, (2) the differential between average rents in low- and high-crime neighborhoods, and, to a lesser extent, (3) the vacancy rate in low-crime neighborhoods.These findings suggest that the existence of tight rental markets in low-crime neighborhoods within cities makes it harder for HCVP households to access those neighborhoods. Cities with these market characteristics can respond through landlord outreach and by increasing the supply of rental housing in lower crime neighborhoods, either by reducing building restrictions or subsidizing supply. (ProQuest: . denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionDuring the past 25 years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local housing authorities have radically changed how they deliver housing subsidies to low-income households. A primary goal of these policy changes is to locate subsidized households in better neighborhoods. Although neighborhood quality is often equated with the poverty rate, policymakers and researchers increasingly use additional metrics to measure the types of neighborhoods where households live.One of these metrics is neighborhood crime-a very important aspect of neighborhood quality, particularly for those who live in subsidized housing. Subsidized households frequently cite crime as a paramount concern and as a motivating force for wanting to leave their current neighborhoods (Goering, Feins, and Richardson, 2002; Hanratty, Pettit, and McLanahan, 1998; Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum, 2000; Wilson and Mast, 2013). These concerns are often justified, given the many documented cases of public housing projects and other clusters of subsidized housing being located in particularly dangerous neighborhoods (Kingsley and Pettit, 2008; Popkin et al., 2002; Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum, 2000). Further highlighting the relevance of crime in this context is the fact that subsidized housing legislation often emphasizes neighborhood safety. This legislation includes the landmark 1949 Housing Act requirement to provide a "suitable living environment" (Newman and Schnare, 1997) and measures in the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 on safety and crime prevention.1These concerns and subsequent research suggest that neighborhood crime is an important measure of neighborhood quality and that any attempts to encourage subsidized households toward better neighborhoods should be mindful of neighborhood crime. Recent work has examined the efficacy of the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) and other housing subsidies at granting access to lower crime neighborhoods (Buron et al., 2002; Feins and Shroder, 2005; Keels et al, 2005; Kling, Ludwig, and Katz, 2005; Lens, Ellen, and O'Regan, 2011). In the most recent of these studies, Lens, Ellen, and O'Regan (2011) found that HCVP households occupy safer neighborhoods than low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and public housing households, but they still live in neighborhoods with higher crime rates than the typical nonsubsidized household. Although all these studies provide important insights into whether HCVP households are accessing lower crime neighborhoods, no existing studies help us to understand why HCVP households may or may not be able to live in safer neighborhoods. …