Section 8 and the Elderly: Racial Implications

Purpose:

Research shows that neighborhood and health/environmental factors (including neighborhood characteristics and accessibility within home) are related to both negative and positive outcomes for the elderly. These negative outcomes are exacerbated for poor African American seniors living in impoverished neighborhoods. 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 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. However, seniors are far less mobile than other groups which means that many of them elect to or must stay in their homes regardless of the conditions of the their neighborhoods (Sabia 2008). The following study examines the status of elderly residents who currently receive Section 8 vouchers in western New York. Utilizing a database comprised of 1089 elderly voucher holders, this research shows that seniors are more likely to live in the impoverished city of Buffalo (63%) than the surrounding suburbs (37%) and that 47% live in neighborhoods with poverty rates higher than 20%. These figures are problematic, but when broken down by race the problem is magnified.

Methods:

Utilizing data from the public housing agencies contracted with the City of Buffalo and Erie County to administer the Section 8 Program, 1089 current voucher holders (63% white, 37% black) were examined to see where they were 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 voucher holders through mapping. Statistical analyses (logistic regression) were done to determine the likelihood that seniors would live inside poor Buffalo or outside in the surrounding better off suburbs.

Results:

As shown, spatial and logistic regression analyses reveal that elderly black voucher holders are much more likely to concentrate (beta = 2.677, p = .001) in impoverished neighborhoods in 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 general population of voucher holders.

Implications:

The findings of this research are significant in the context of previous aging in place research. Since most seniors are less mobile they tend to age in place, however, the consequences of this are more detrimental to the black elderly population since 94% of black voucher holders in western NY live in Buffalo in declining neighborhoods with older housing in poor condition. In addition, 70% of the black seniors are disabled compared to 33% of whites. This has implications for the already taxed social service delivery system in this region since the vouchers are not attached to any other type of supportive services. These findings suggest that more emphasis should be placed on subsidized housing which provides additional social services to poor seniors especially minority elderly populations.