Regional Housing Initiative Pilot final report to HUD published. The final report on the RHI pilot in the Chicago area has been completed and submitted to HUD by Metropolitan Planning Council and BRicK Partners. Click here to download the report.
Making the move to opportunity
On October 13, 2016 BRicK Partner’s Robin Snyderman co-authored this blog with the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Marisa Novara about the findings of a recent RAND Corporation study related to a 2-year pilot which examined what incentives increase the demand for the existing supply of rental housing in opportunity areas among households using tenant-based subsidies.
The pilot expanded on the ongoing work of the Regional Housing Initiative, which continues to focus on utilizing the same resources as operating subsidies to increase that supply.
On one hand, pilot participants who received mobility counseling and financial assistance indeed moved to areas with even lower poverty and higher incomes than those who didn’t seek or receive such supports. In other words, for those who were ready to make an opportunity move, counseling did help them get to more economically prosperous options.
On the other hand, the study’s main finding was that the availability of financial assistance and housing counseling alone was not incentive enough to pursue such an opportunity move.
Regional public housing authorities continue to explore their next collaboration related to this tenant-based mobility along side Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, BRicK and other partners on the Regional Housing Initiative, which focuses on increasing and diversifying the supply of rental housing options in priority areas region-wide.