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Title: How Much Could Full Funding and Use of Housing Choice Vouchers Reduce Poverty? Created with ATTIS
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: The US social safety net includes a range of programs to help families with lower incomes obtain additional cash income, additional resources for food, and help with housing, child care expenses, and energy costs. However, many of the people who are eligible for these programs do not receive help. One barrier is that some programs, including housing assistance, are not funded at a level that would serve all eligible households. Previously, we estimated that full funding and participation in six benefit programs (not including housing assistance) would reduce the poverty rate as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) from 14.7 percent to 12.1 percent. If all households eligible for housing assistance were then provided with a housing voucher and found a rental unit that would accept it, the poverty rate would fall further to 10.1 percent (Giannarelli et al. 2023). Here, we estimate the antipoverty effect of full funding and provision of housing assistance separately, without the assumption of full funding and participation in other government programs. We estimate the effect of full funding and full use of housing vouchers using projected 2022 data from the Analysis of Transfers, Taxes, and Income Security (ATTIS) microsimulation model. We show results in terms of aggregate benefit dollars and reductions in poverty as measured by the SPM, both nationally and at the state level. We also examine results by age group and by race and ethnicity. Key findings include the following: Households currently receiving housing assistance represent 25 percent of households that would receive assistance with full funding and use of housing vouchers. With full funding and use of housing vouchers, total housing subsidies would increase by over three times, from about $50 billion to $168 billion per year. Full funding and use of housing vouchers would reduce the share of people with resources below the SPM poverty level from 14.7 to 12.8 percent, a reduction of 13 percent. The child poverty rate would fall by 23 percent, poverty among adults ages 18 to 64 would fall by 12 percent, and poverty among adults 65 and older would fall by 7 percent. Hispanic people would have the largest reduction in poverty (19 percent), followed by Black, non-Hispanic people (15 percent), Asian and Pacific Islander people who are not Hispanic (13 percent), and white, non-Hispanic people (9 percent). Poverty would fall by 13 percent for citizens and 14 percent for noncitizens. Poverty would fall across states, with the reduction ranging from 4 percent in Kentucky and West Virginia to 24 percent in Hawaii and 25 percent in California. Child poverty would fall by between 8 percent in Idaho and West Virginia and 51 percent in Hawaii.
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Authors: Wheaton, Laura; Dehry, Ilham; Giannarelli, Linda; Knowles, Sarah
Publisher: Urban Institute
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Health, Housing and Segregation, Poverty and Welfare
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