Tickets Out of Poverty? Housing Voucher Recipients Can Move to Better Neighborhoods Only if States and Localities Break Down Suburban Barriers (American Prospect)

By Jake Blumgart, American Prospect

For Lorraine Washington, a housing choice voucher, colloquially known as Section 8, represents escape and opportunity. Before her recent move enabled by the subsidy, she lived in the Blumberg Apartments, a public housing complex in one of the most impoverished corners of Philadelphia. Then the Philadelphia Housing Authority slated her building for demolition and offered its residents a choice: They could move to a new public housing unit in the city or accept a Section 8 voucher—which can, in theory, be used anywhere they might want to go.