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Monday, December 19, 2011

Rental Assistance and Economic Opportunity

In collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation’s How Housing Matters Initiative, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is running a series of commentaries on How Housing Matters to Families and Communities. The series includes information on the intersection of housing and health, economic opportunity and education. The latest piece in the series is Rental Assistance: A Drag on Work or a Platform for Economic Opportunity? by Jeffrey Lubell from the Center for Housing Policy. In the piece Lubell comments on the concern expressed by some that receiving housing vouchers might have a negative impact on earnings. The issue brief states that there are aspects of housing assistance that promote and hinder work efforts and, over the long-term, these aspects more or less offset each other; resulting in no persistent long-term impact. The brief goes on to suggest that by addressing the aspects that negatively impact work and building up the positive ones that rental assistance could become a platform for greater economic opportunity.

To learn more about how housing impacts families and communities.

Visit our Investing in Community Change blog to read about the impact of housing and health in the post: Funders and Policymakers Increasingly Support Innovative Models to Address Housing and Health .

For results-based strategies to promote affordable housing visit PolicyforResults.