TY - JOUR
T1 - Taking Stock
T2 - What Drives Landlord Participation in the Housing Choice Voucher Program
AU - Garboden, Philip M.E.
AU - Rosen, Eva
AU - DeLuca, Stefanie
AU - Edin, Kathryn
N1 - Funding Information:
The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under a grant with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government.
Funding Information:
for this research was provided by the Office of University Partnerships, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy; the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The team would like to thank Melody Boyd, Brianna Bueltmann, Hana Clemens, Mollie Cueva-Dabkoski, Jennifer Darrah, Meredith Greif, Christine Jang, Barbara Kiviat, Ann Owens, Ben Schwartz, and Stephen Wong for assistance with data collection. Peter Durham, Ryan Kellner, Daniel Kim, Katy Li, Emily Rencsok, and Kevin Wells provided invaluable work on coding and data cleaning. Participants in the 2016 Baltimore Social Policy Fellows program (Rachel Becker, Elizabeth Fassa, Danielle Blustein, Andrew Hernandez, Elliot Kim, Tommy Koh, Dikshant Malla, Rebecca VanVoorhees, Maggie Weese) assisted in the initial coding work for this project.
Funding Information:
Funding for this research was provided by the Office of University Partnerships, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy; the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
PY - 2018/11/2
Y1 - 2018/11/2
N2 - To succeed, the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program must be attractive to rental property owners. When landlords refuse to accept subsidized renters, lease-up rates decline, administrative costs increase, and options become limited to high-poverty neighborhoods where owners are most desperate. This article examines what motivates landlords’ decisions to accept subsidized tenants. We use 127 interviews with a random and field sample of landlords, combined with administrative data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on property ownership in Baltimore, Maryland, Dallas, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio. We find that landlords’ perspectives on the HCV program, including rents, tenants, and inspections, are highly dependent on context; landlords weigh the costs and benefits of program participation against the counterfactual tenant that a landlord might otherwise rent to in the open market. We argue that policymakers can boost landlord participation by better understanding how landlords think about their alternatives within each local context. Finally, we consider what drives nonparticipation in the program. Our results show that the majority of landlords who refuse voucher holders had accepted them previously. We suggest that policy reform should be dually focused on improving bureaucratic inefficiencies that deter landlord participation, and providing training and education to landlords.
AB - To succeed, the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program must be attractive to rental property owners. When landlords refuse to accept subsidized renters, lease-up rates decline, administrative costs increase, and options become limited to high-poverty neighborhoods where owners are most desperate. This article examines what motivates landlords’ decisions to accept subsidized tenants. We use 127 interviews with a random and field sample of landlords, combined with administrative data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on property ownership in Baltimore, Maryland, Dallas, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio. We find that landlords’ perspectives on the HCV program, including rents, tenants, and inspections, are highly dependent on context; landlords weigh the costs and benefits of program participation against the counterfactual tenant that a landlord might otherwise rent to in the open market. We argue that policymakers can boost landlord participation by better understanding how landlords think about their alternatives within each local context. Finally, we consider what drives nonparticipation in the program. Our results show that the majority of landlords who refuse voucher holders had accepted them previously. We suggest that policy reform should be dually focused on improving bureaucratic inefficiencies that deter landlord participation, and providing training and education to landlords.
KW - HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
KW - rental housing
KW - vouchers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85054316236&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/10511482.2018.1502202
DO - 10.1080/10511482.2018.1502202
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85054316236
SN - 1051-1482
VL - 28
SP - 979
EP - 1003
JO - Housing Policy Debate
JF - Housing Policy Debate
IS - 6
ER -