ÈâÂþÎÝ

Please join the ÈâÂþÎÝ Furman Center for a virtual lunchtime presentation:

Housing Vouchers and Neighborhood Effects:

Can Expanding Access to Opportunity Pay for Itself?

with
 
JoonYup Park
Professor 
Hawai’i Community Reinvestment Corporation (HCRC)
 
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Time: 3:30 - 4:30 PM ET
Location:

Abstract: This paper examines whether more generous housing subsidies that expand low-income households' access to high-opportunity neighborhoods can generate income gains that offset their own fiscal cost. Such efforts are often criticized for increasing public spending, as they typically require larger subsidies in expensive areas. This presumed trade-off, however, overlooks that income may be endogenous to location. Park studies a rental voucher reform that adjusts subsidy ceilings to a finer ZIP code-level rent variation. Consistent with the neighborhood effects literature, Park finds that moves to higher-rent neighborhoods increase household income, which raises tenant rent contributions and leads to a net decline in per-unit federal spending. In high-rent areas, income gains offset higher rents, whereas in low-rent areas, lower payment limits prevent landlord overcharging. These savings are concentrated in less residentially segregated metros. Long-run evidence shows that as more households relocate to high-rent areas, income-driven offsets weaken, costs rise, and program size contracts. These findings highlight a key trade-off: while more generous subsidies generate fiscal efficiencies in the medium run, its long-term financial sustainability remains uncertain under fixed budgets.

About the Presenter:
JoonYup Park is the Hawai’i Community Reinvestment Corporation (HCRC) Professor in Affordable Housing Economics, Policy, and Planning at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, with a joint appointment in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the University of Hawai’i Economic Research Organization. His research centers on affordable housing policy and residential segregation. His recent works study how improving low-income households’ access to high-opportunity neighborhoods affects broader rental markets and residential equilibrium, as well as the associated costs of such policy interventions. JoonYup holds a B.A. in Mathematical Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University.