View Research by Author - Larry Buron

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A main goal of the HOPE VI program was to improve public housing by replacing failed developments with healthy and safe communities that offer a better quality of life for residents. This brief explores whether the safety gains for early relocates have been sustained and whether those who moved later have benefited equally— because these residents tended to be among the most vulnerable, there was good reason to think that they would not fare as well. We find that almost all former residents are now living in safer conditions and that improved safety and quality of life has been the greatest benefit of the Plan for Transformation for CHA residents.

Eight years after the Madden/Wells redevelopment started, this brief presents what has happened to the original residents, including the type of housing assistance they received and where they lived in 2009. Despite a number of challenges, we found that by 2009, all of the residents had relocated and nearly one in five former Madden/Wells residents was living in a new mixed-income housing development. Most of the former Madden/Wells residents reported that their current housing and neighborhood was better than Madden/Wells. However, only a minority lived in economically or racially diverse neighborhoods that offer real opportunities for themselves and their children.

This overview presents findings from the Chicago Panel Study, a follow up to the Urban Institute’s five-site HOPE VI Panel Study, to assess how the residents are faring as the Plan for Transformation progresses. We find that after 10 years, the story for CHA families is far more positive than many observers—including ourselves— would have predicted at the outset. Regardless of where they have moved, most families in our study are living in considerably better circumstances. However, the study also highlights the serious challenges that remain, most significantly, residents’ extremely poor health and persistently low rates of employment.

Most former HOPE VI residents have received Housing Choice Vouchers; these residents, who are now living in private-market housing are doing well in many ways. Compared with those who moved to traditional public housing developments, those who moved with vouchers are living in significantly better quality housing in neighborhoods that are lower poverty and dramatically safer. On most measures, they are substantially better off than those who have moved to other traditional public housing developments, particularly on the those outcomes directly affected by HOPE VI relocation: the quality of their housing, their neighborhoods, and their perceptions of safety. But while the story is generally positive, it is also clear that many voucher holders are struggling to cope with the financial challenges of living in the private market. Moving out of public housing presents new financial management challenges, such as paying rent on time and being responsible for separate utility payments, which are usually included in the rent in public housing. Relocation assistance and updated utility allowances could ease the burden of these challenges for those moving to the private market with Housing Choice Vouchers.

A main criticism of the HOPE VI program is that intentionally relocating residents—even temporarily—increases the likelihood that some residents will end up homeless. Housing authorities have been accused of "losing" residents and not providing them with the relocation assistance to which they were entitled; critics in some cities have claimed increases in shelter populations. However, most of the evidence has been anecdotal, and while there has been much rhetoric on both sides, there has been no hard evidence to support or disprove critics' claims that HOPE VI increases homelessness.

The HOPE VI program strives to improve neighborhood living conditions in some of the nation's most distressed public housing developments by revitalizing the site and by helping residents move to less distressed neighborhoods. This brief examines HOPE IV's progress, two years after the start of relocation at the five HOPE VI panel study sites, in "improving the living environment for residents of severely distressed public housing" and "providing housing that will avoid or decrease the concentration of very low-income families." We find that neighborhood conditions have greatly improved for relocatees, particularly those who now live in private housing.

The HOPE VI Resident Tracking Study represents the first systematic look at what has happened to original residents of distressed public housing developments targeted for revitalization under the HOPE VI program. It provides a snapshot of the living conditions and well-being of former residents of eight properties as of the spring of 2001—between two and seven years after the PHA was awarded a HOPE VI grant. At that time, the redevelopment process was still under way in six of the eight study sites, so the results describe a "work in progress."

The HOPE VI Panel Study focuses on the longer-term location, neighborhood conditions, physical and mental health, and socioeconomic outcomes for original residents of five HOPE VI developments where redevelopment activities began in mid- to late 2001. The specific research questions the study addresses fall into seven issue areas: housing outcomes; neighborhood outcomes; social integration; health outcomes; child education and behavior outcomes; socioeconomic outcomes; and experiences with relocation and supportive services. The study is structured as a pre- and post-intervention study, with the intervention being the changes brought about by HOPE VI activities.

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