The Voucher Promise: "Section 8" and the Fate of an American Neighborhood

by Eva Rosen

Overview

"A must-read for anyone interested in solutions to America’s housing crisis."—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
An in-depth look at America’s largest rental assistance program and how it shapes the lives of residents in one low-income Baltimore neighborhood

Housing vouchers are a cornerstone of US federal housing policy, offering aid to more than two million households. Vouchers are meant to provide the poor with increased choice in the private rental marketplace, enabling access to safe neighborhoods with good schools and higher-paying jobs. But do they?

The Voucher Promise examines the Housing Choice Voucher Program, colloquially known as “Section 8,” and how it shapes the lives of families living in a Baltimore neighborhood called Park Heights. Eva Rosen tells stories about the daily lives of homeowners, voucher holders, renters who receive no housing assistance, and the landlords who provide housing. While vouchers are a powerful tool with great promise, she demonstrates how the housing policy can replicate the very inequalities it has the power to solve.

Rosen spent more than a year living in Park Heights, sitting on front stoops, getting to know families, accompanying them on housing searches, speaking to landlords, and learning about the neighborhood’s history. Voucher holders disproportionately end up in this area despite rampant unemployment, drugs, crime, and abandoned housing. Exploring why they are unable to relocate to other neighborhoods, Rosen illustrates the challenges in obtaining vouchers and the difficulties faced by recipients in using them when and where they want to. Yet, despite the program’s real shortcomings, she argues that vouchers offer basic stability for families and should remain integral to solutions for the nation’s housing crisis.

Delving into the connections between safe, affordable housing and social mobility, The Voucher Promise investigates the profound benefits and formidable obstacles involved in housing America’s poor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691214986
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/24/2022
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	729,802
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eva Rosen is assistant professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC. Twitter @eva_rosen

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Park Heights: "A Ghost Town" 28

Chapter 2 Housing Insecurity and Survival Strategies 60

Chapter 3 "A Place to Call Home": The Promise of Housing Vouchers 91

Chapter 4 "No Vouchers Here": The Challenges of Using the Voucher 114

Chapter 5 "A Tenant for Every House": The Role of Landlords 130

Chapter 6 The Receiving Neighborhood: "Not in My Front Yard" 165

Chapter 7 Moving On 209

Chapter 8 Conclusion 234

Methodological Appendix 261

Acknowledgments 273

Notes 277

Works Cited 303

Index 323

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Housing vouchers are supposed to give low-income families the chance to live in better neighborhoods. So why don’t they? To find out, Eva Rosen moved to a poor Baltimore community and befriended voucher holders, homeowners, landlords, and homeless families. This deeply researched investigation told from the ground level reveals the promise of one of the nation’s largest antipoverty programs and the forces conspiring against it. Rosen’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in solutions to America’s housing crisis."—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

"Eva Rosen’s analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Section 8 is a major contribution to the urban poverty literature. After reading her remarkable book, I now have a clearer understanding of why voucher holders tend to concentrate in moderately poor segregated neighborhoods, and of how this problem can be addressed."—William Julius Wilson, Harvard University

"In rendering a deep and comprehensive portrait of a Baltimore neighborhood, Eva Rosen sensitively captures the frontline experiences of contemporary US housing policy for poor people. These powerful and personal stories demand a national reckoning with the promise to provide decent and affordable housing and to build strong neighborhoods."—Mary Pattillo, author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City

"In this timely, important look at the federal government's largest program of low-income housing assistance, Eva Rosen foregrounds the goals and strategies of low-income black tenants, their ambivalent landlords, and the struggling homeowners who anchor changing neighborhoods—as they navigate race and class exclusion and official neglect. Rosen shatters the myth that choice-based programs for poor people of color are resourced and run to deliver real choices as promised. Highly recommended."—Xavier de Souza Briggs, coauthor of Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

"Through her rich ethnographic research, Eva Rosen documents the power of vouchers and their critical role in providing low-income Americans with rental assistance and housing stability. But she also shows how unscrupulous landlords, program requirements, and the legacy of segregation limit tenants’ options and undermine the real potential of housing choice."—Susan Popkin, author of No Simple Solutions: Transforming Public Housing in Chicago

"Not only accessible, but also deeply moving, this clear-sighted book conveys rich, compelling details on an important, timely subject. Eva Rosen offers impactful insights about the lives of Section 8 voucher holders and the private and public systems that shape their lives."—Japonica Brown-Saracino, author of How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities

"The Voucher Promise is impressive. With its compelling case studies, this book represents an important addition to the literature on housing vouchers."—David P. Varady, editor of Desegregating the City: Ghettos, Enclaves, and Inequality

"Through a detailed look at a low-income, mostly black neighborhood in Baltimore, The Voucher Promise provides a much-needed evaluation of the aims of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. This book tells rarely heard stories of people living in precarious housing situations."—Michael Lens, University of California, Los Angeles

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Paul Davidoff Book Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

"Winner of the Outstanding Book Award, Inequality, Poverty, and Social Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association"

From the Publisher