Doctoral Dissertation Research - Moving Out: Section 8 and Public Housing Relocation in Chicago

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation will study the settlement patterns and housing choice decisions of African American households in Chicago as they move out of public housing and into the private market using Chicago Housing Authority Section 8 housing vouchers. It will examine where these relocation households are moving, how their settlement patterns compare with those of other Section 8 recipients, and how these patterns reflect the local housing market. It will analyze whether different types of households, and households from different CHA developments, are moving to different neighborhoods. And, it will ask how relocation decisions are shaped by the choices and constraints that characterize the housing search process in the context of: 1) the CHA's redevelopment and relocation programs; 2) the specific dynamics of Chicago's housing market; and 3) the differences in the households' composition, needs, and preferences. Finally, it will explore how these choices and constraints help to explain the patterns of settlement in the local housing market. The proposed research design is multi-method. It will combine quantitative and spatial analysis (Phase I), interviews with expert respondents (Phase II), and qualitative semi-structured interviews with a stratified sample of public housing relocation households (Phase III). The quantitative analysis will use administrative data for Chicago's regular Section 8 and relocation programs, tract level U.S. Census data, and current housing market data. Visual representations of geographic settlement and demographic patterns will be generated using GIS tools. Statistical tests will include: ANOVA analysis of differences between Section 8 populations; OLS regression analysis of neighborhood characteristics on the number of households from each program in the census tract; and, OLS regression analysis of the effects of different household characteristics, on the proportion of African American households and the poverty rates of the receiving tracts. Spatial variables generated using GIS tools will be incorporated into these analyses as controls. Transcripts of interviews with relocation households will be analyzed using a hierarchical database computer program (Phase IV). This research is designed to bring a range of social-scientific methodological perspectives to bear on current housing-assistance and public-housing relocation programs in order to generate results valuable to both national policy makers and local managers charged with program implementation. It will advance broader explorations of the mechanisms of racial and economic segregation that limits the opportunities of disadvantaged populations. It will also support the continued integration of emergent GIS tools and spatial analysis into social-policy analysis and social-scientific studies of urban systems. The research will contribute to social science in several ways: The findings will be disseminated to both academic and practitioner audiences. The Co-PI has worked closely with local stakeholders in developing the project, and has agreed to share findings both informally and through presentations to an established civic network in Chicago. The findings will be shared with interdisciplinary academic and policy-making communities through a series of conference papers (2-3), and scholarly publications (2). In addition, the full dissertation will be publicized through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's web page, and made available through HUD-User.