By Charlotte Keith, Investigative Post
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Researchers at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council found that in nearly all of the 50 largest metropolitan areas, families with children who received Section 8 vouchers were clustered in poor neighborhoods — even though plenty of affordable apartments were available in more affluent neighborhoods.
“Local patterns of racial segregation and past and present discriminatory policies are likely driving higher concentrations of voucher-affordable units in high poverty neighborhoods than would otherwise be the case,” the report found.
“Families using Section 8 aren’t clustered in poor neighborhoods because that’s where all the affordable housing is — it goes way beyond that,” said Brian Knudsen, one of the study’s authors.
In Buffalo, that disparity is particularly stark. Sixty-one percent of families with vouchers live in poor neighborhoods, researchers found, even though only 35 percent of apartments that are affordable for voucher-holders are in those neighborhoods. In Buffalo, the discrepancy between where families can afford to live, and where they actually do, was among the largest of all 50 metropolitan areas included in the study.
