The Voucher Promise: "Section 8" and the Fate of an American Neighborhood

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Description

An in-depth look at America's largest rental assistance program and how it shapes the lives of residents in one low-income Baltimore neighborhood Housing vouchers are a cornerstone of US federal housing policy, offering aid to more than two million households. Vouchers are meant to provide the poor with increased choice in the private rental mar

Reviews

"Winner of the Paul Davidoff Book Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning"
"Winner of the Outstanding Book Award, Inequality, Poverty, and Social Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association"
"An engaging read. Most compellingly, Rosen offers a moving psychological portrait of her interlocutors, revealing how people cope with neighborhood change and reconcile limited opportunities and chronic disappointments."---Maya Dukmasova, Chicago Reader
"Rosens ethnographic study helps to correct a weak point in the literature on the HCV program. . . . The Voucher Promise provides a look at the HCV program from many perspectives including the participating voucher households and the renter households not lucky enough to receive a voucher. The book studies the landlords who choose to participate as well as those who do not. Finally, the book explores the households, especially long-term homeowners, who populate the neighborhoods where the HCV voucher households locate. This mix of perspectives is the strength of the book."---Kirk McClure, Social Forces
"This work, although a valuable contribution to the sociology literature, is also an important book for urban planners and policy scholars and practitioners. Rosen has managed the difficult task of creating rigorous research that is highly critical of an important federal program but at the same time recognized how vital the program is to the lives of so many economically fragile families. . . . a must read for anyone interested in housing markets and housing policy. It is refreshingly well written and at the same time highly substantive."---Dan Immergluck, Journal of the American Planning Association
"A fine study with important insights for scholars and practitioners, regardless of their disciplinary leanings. Readers may find themselves comparing [The Voucher Promise] favorably to the highly acclaimed Evicted: Poverty and Poverty in the American City by Matthew Desmond."---Dennis E. Gale, Journal of Planning Education and Research
"[Rosen] bring[s] to the table workable and much needed suggestions for changes to a flawed policy."---Lisa Lucile Owens, Critical Sociology

Author Bio

Eva Rosen is assistant professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC. Twitter @eva_rosen