Neighborhood Matters to Poor Families: The Residential Spatial Patterns of Section 8 Voucher Holders in the Buffalo-Niagara Region

Purpose:

Research shows that living in impoverished neighborhoods undermines the well-being of families and the life chances of children. Section 8 housing policy attempts to mediate these outcomes with tenant-based assistance in the private rental market. One of the primary goals of this policy is to give poor renters the opportunity to use housing vouchers to move out of areas of concentrated poverty and into neighborhoods with less poverty and higher quality of life. Lower poverty neighborhoods provide many benefits to heads of household, children, and adolescents. These benefits include better HS graduation rates, increased employment, improved residential conditions, higher levels of self-efficacy for household heads, increased feelings of safety, and improved mental health (Varady and Walker, 2003). The following study examines how effective Section 8 policy is at deconcentrating poverty in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Utilizing a database comprised of 4724 voucher holders, this research hypothesizes that despite a healthy supply of affordable rental housing and the existence of intensive mobility counseling financed by HUD, Section 8 voucher holders will be concentrated in the most impoverished neighborhoods mirroring the existing patterns of race and class segregation in the region.

Methods:

Utilizing data from the public housing agency contracted with the City of Buffalo to administer its Section 8 Program, 4724 current Section 8 voucher holders (23% white, 76% black, 1% other) were examined to see where they located in the metropolis. Addresses were matched to census tract data from the 2000 U.S. Census to get neighborhood level data. This data was then geocoded utilizing ArcGIS 9 to examine the spatial concentration of Section 8 voucher holders through the use of mapping. Statistical analyses (binary logistic regression) were done to determine the likelihood that certain groups would live inside Buffalo or outside in the surrounding suburbs.

Results:

As hypothesized, spatial and logistic regression analyses reveal that poor African American voucher holders are more likely to be concentrated (beta = 2.157, p = .001) in impoverished neighborhoods in the city of Buffalo and a significantly smaller proportion (6%) locate outside Buffalo in neighborhoods that would offer them a higher quality of life. In contrast, white voucher holders locate in patterns similar to the intended Section 8 policy outcomes. They are less likely to locate in impoverished areas throughout Buffalo while a significant number (27%) are located in the suburbs.

Implications:

The findings of this research are significant in the context of the previous work on subsidized housing policy's effectiveness at facilitating out of poverty moves for minority poor renters and the beneficial impact on child welfare (Hartung and Henig, 1997). In the Buffalo/Niagara region, Section 8 policy is not effective in moving poor black families into lower poverty neighborhoods. This has implications for the already taxed social service delivery system in this poor region since poverty is reconcentrating despite intensive mobility counseling. These findings suggest that more emphasis needs to be placed on the relationship between social service delivery systems and local housing programs aimed at poverty deconcentration.