Housing Assistance in Black and White: A Discrete Choice Model of Residential Sorting in Housing Voucher Programs

Elijah Knaap

This study uses a series of discrete choice models to study residential sorting patterns of housing choice voucher (HCV) holders in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region. Using data from 50,000 voucher holders and 800,000 residential parcels, I examine which spatial characteristics influence the likelihood that a voucher recipient will occupy a particular housing unit. The results indicate pervasive racial inequality in the neighborhood experience of voucher holders; racial segregation is the dominant mode by which voucher holders sort into neighborhoods, with white voucher holders also enjoying benefits such as better schools and higher quality housing units. In addition to white and black HCV recipients, I also model the residential sorting of participants in the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program, a special voucher program that provides housing counseling, transportation assistance, and credit counseling in addition to vouchers. These households show important differences from both their black and white counterparts in the HCV program, and are more likely to live in high quality units in integrated communities with good schools. Together, these results suggest that systemic inequality in housing assistance remains an important issue, but that changes to housing voucher programs and metropolitan policy, more broadly, could help combat these patterns