Section 8

Despite having a housing voucher—a legal source of income—a Buffalo, New York, woman could not find a landlord who would rent out their property to her.

A: Yes. Landlords in most places can discriminate against voucher holders, and many do. This often keeps voucher holders in a few segregated neighborhoods.

Early research shows that laws prohibiting discrimination based on source of income may improve outcomes for Housing Choice Voucher holders.

A: More than half are elderly or disabled. Of the rest, most of them do have a job! Ninety-four percent of rental assistance receipts are …

For Section 8 recipients, a step toward economic mobility (and community control) can be limited-equity cooperatives. A Section 8 voucher can be used to pay some of the monthly carrying costs of a co-op unit.

Why are nuisance ordinances proliferating nationwide, and who is disproportionately affected?

NIMBY fights are a big obstacle to allowing lower-income households access to opportunity. Truth is, voucher holders don’t increase crime in a neighborhood.

A: No! This is a perennial fear, but research shows that additional voucher holders don’t change the crime rate at all. However it does show that . . .

PETRA, the Obama administration’s $350 million effort to reform public housing, first proposed in February 2010, has many in the housing field skeptical.

A group of the nation’s leading scholars and experts on housing and urban policy respond to The Atlantic‘s “American Murder Mystery”

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s departure failed to dispel concerns about his conduct in office that led to multiple ethics investigations.

In exchange for the abandonment of meaningful levels of housing assistance—whether project- or tenant-based—we are paying a high price in homelessness and severe cost burdens.