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Project Description

Moving to Opportunity (MTO) treatment program involves receiving section 8 certificates or vouchers useable only in low-poverty areas (areas with less than 10% of the population below the poverty line), along with counseling and assistance in finding a rental unit.

MTO programs were established in each city as partnerships between local public housing authorities (PHAs) and one or more local, nonprofit, counseling organizations (NPOs). The PHAs administered the Section 8 rental assistance and the NPOs received funding to help pay the costs associated with counseling, helping find rental units, and working with landlords. Each local program had to provide some degree of match for the Federal counseling funds.

Project duration: Apr 1994 - Apr 2004

Sites studied include Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

4,610 families who volunteered for MTO were randomly assigned into one of three groups:

MTO treatment group, (N=1,8203,170) which received section 8 certificates or vouchers useable only in low-poverty areas (areas with less than 10% of the population below the poverty line), along with counseling and assistance in finding a rental unit. 860 families (48%) successfully leased units in low-poverty neighborhoods.

Section 8 comparison group, (N=1,6501,350) which received regular section 8 certificates or vouchers (geographically unrestricted) and whatever briefings and assistance Section 8 certificate and voucher recipients would normally receive from the housing authority. 816 families (60%) successfully leased units.

In-place control group, (N=1,440) which received no certificates or vouchers but continued to receive project-based assistance.

NOTE: MTO was designed as a major social science improvement over earlier research that failed to address the problem of self-selection bias: that if only the most motivated families are included or selected to join a program, their experiences will not be typical of the eligible population and will confound or confuse outcomes. MTO addresses the self-selection issue buy randomly assigning families who volunteered for the MTO program into one of the three groups.

Recent Findings in Brief

09/01/03: Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration: Interim Impacts Evaluation

Interim Impact Findings

• MTO had substantial, positive effects on the mobility of families in the experimental and Section 8 groups and on the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which they lived.
• By the time of the interim evaluation, these differentials in poverty rates had narrowed somewhat, in part because of subsequent moves by the experimental families and in part because of changes over time in neighborhood poverty rates, but they had by no means disappeared.
• It is noteworthy that even those families who moved to low-poverty areas did not necessarily move to predominantly white or racially integrated areas.
• Mobility patterns resulted in a number of significant improvements in the environment in which experimental group families lived and lesser improvements for Section 8 group families.
• Changes in the neighborhood environment substantially increased the chances that adults in experimental group families would have college educated friends or friends earning $30,000 or more. There was no significant effect on these outcomes for adults in Section 8 families.
• Families who moved with program vouchers markedly improved their neighborhood conditions, reporting large reductions in the presence of litter, trash, graffiti, abandoned buildings, people “hanging around,” and public drinking, relative to the control group.
• MTO substantially improved the quality of housing occupied by the families who moved with program vouchers.
• Estimation of MTO’s impacts on these outcomes and on measures of smoking, drinking, and general physical health revealed one significant impact on adults’ physical health: a large reduction in the incidence of obesity among both experimental and Section 8 families.
• Improvements in mental health among adults in the experimental group families: a reduction in psychological distress, a reduction in depression (statistically significant on one measure of depression though not on the other), and an increase in feelings of calm and peacefulness.
• There were no significant mental health improvements among those on Section 8.
• Among children, the significant effects of MTO on health were confined to mental health measures— a moderately large reduction in psychological distress for girls in the experimental group; a substantial decrease in the incidence of depression among girls in the Section 8 group; and very large reductions in the incidence of generalized anxiety disorder among girls in both treatment groups.
• Participation in MTO resulted in a large reduction in the proportion of girls age 15 to 19 in the Section 8 group who had ever been arrested for violent crimes.
• There was a significant increase in self reported behavior problems among boys ages 12 to 19 in both treatments groups.
• No evidence was found that MTO reduced public assistance receipt or increased average household income, income relative to poverty, or food security. No evidence was found that any of the subgroups examined experienced reductions in welfare benefits relative to controls. The few statistically significant impacts indicated increases in welfare receipt.

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