Annotated Bibliography of Housing Mobility Research 2006-2010

Summary: O’Neil, the former director of CHAC, Inc., offers lessons from her hands­on experience with
assisted housing mobility and identifies concrete steps that would improve the performance of
these efforts, including: a well­run voucher program with policies and procedures that support
mobility counseling efforts; quality of life indicators used to define “opportunity areas”;
aggressive fair housing enforcement; incremental measures of families’ success; greater family
involvement in the community; return to voucher participant anonymity; and counseling efforts
focused on “second movers.”
Popkin, Susan J., “New Findings on the Benefits and Limitations of Assisted Housing
Mobility,” Urban Institute (2008). Available at: http://www.urban.org/publications/901160.html
Popkin, Susan J., Tama Leventhal & Gretchen Weismann, “Girls in the ‘Hood: The
Importance of Feeling Safe,” Urban Institute (2008)
Abstract:
The Moving to Opportunity program targeted families living in some of the nation's poorest,
highest­crime neighborhoods and offered them a chance to move to lower poverty areas. One hope
was that, away from concentrated poverty and the risks associated with it–including poor physical
and mental health, risky sexual behavior and delinquency–families would fare better. This brief
examines how adolescent girls benefited from moving out of high poverty and discusses why girls
might have fared so much better than boys, including the importance of feeling safe from
harassment and pressure to become sexually active.
Reece, Jason & Eric Schultheis, POVERTY'S PLACE: The Use of Geographic Information
Systems in Poverty Advocacy, 42 CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW 430 (2009)
Highlights: The use of geographic information systems (GIS) gives advocates a powerful way to understand
how laws and policies affect the poor based on where they live. Through the use of this computerbased
tool, advocates can visually illustrate adverse effects upon the poor and thus more
effectively focus their advocacy efforts. Understanding how GIS works and how it can be applied
in the real world can both expand the advocacy community's perception of the intersection of
space, place, race, and poverty and further specific advocacy goals.
Summary: Introduces advocates to the concept of spatial thinking through geographic information systems
(GIS) and presents case studies on the use of GIS to support antipoverty advocacy. The case
studies detail GIS implementation by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, the
Race Equity project, and Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC), where GIS technology
was leveraged to serve client needs and organizational policy objectives better. Demonstrates in
practical terms how GIS can further advocacy goals and expand advocacy communities’
understanding of the intersection of place and poverty.
Roisman, Florence Wagman, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in Regional Housing
Markets: The Baltimore Public Housing Desegregation Litigation, 42 WAKE FOREST LAW
REVIEW 333 (2007)
Summary: Argues that racial segregation in public housing has been a “curiously invisible” public issue in
America and that HUD is obligated to “affirmatively further” fair housing and remedy racial
segregation. Provides an overview of and introduction to the housing desegregation litigation,
including a discussion of housing mobility as a result of that litigation. Also considers in some
detail the most recent of those cases, Thompson v. HUD, involving Baltimore, MD.
Rosenbaum, James & Stefanie DeLuca, “Does Changing Neighborhoods Change Lives The
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