Neighborhood Impacts: Concepts

Moving Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program (MTO) 

The concept refers to a residential mobility program that was initiated to reduce poverty by moving public housing facilities to self-sufficiency neighborhoods. Better schools, higher-paying jobs, and safer streets would characterize the neighborhoods, which would allow parents and children to have access to wider opportunities. The voucher-based program targeted over 4,500 residents in a bid to deal with the adverse effects of previous housing policies that segregated low-income people. According to Acevado-Gracia & Osypuk (2008), MTO is an experimental study involving individuals from high-poverty neighborhoods assigned vouchers to move to non-poor neighborhoods (p.209). The Housing and Urban Development Department funded the housing mobility experiment that targeted low-income families from racial minorities. This program has been very effective in promoting the families' health outcomes that benefit from the project. The main health benefits include a decrease in obesity rates, improved mental health, and a reduction in substance abuse.

Hope VI 

The concept refers to a program that was initiated to revitalize public housing projects by transforming them into mixed-income communities. Hope VI panel set out to find out the challenges associated with living in severely distressed public housing. The panel establishing that the residents had lower physical and mental health outcomes due to substandard housing that exposed them to pest infestations, mold, and inadequate heat (Acevado-Gracia & Osypuk, 2008, p. 217). Hope VI was initiated to address these needs by providing the target population with vouchers for better housing that would improve their health outcomes. In this arrangement, low-income families would have an opportunity of forming social networks with their neighbors and, in this way, deconcentrate poverty. The social networks created by this housing program would offer a wide range of benefits, including access to information and positive role models. An evaluation of the Hope VI program indicates that moving to new houses created better economic conditions and, in turn, better health outcomes.

Reference 

Acevedo-Garcia, D., & Osypuk, T. L. (2008). Impacts of housing and neighborhoods on health: Pathways, racial/ethnic disparities, and policy directions. In J. Carr, & N. Kutty (Eds.), Segregation: The rising costs for America (pp. 197-236). Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203895023