Furman Center Releases Report on Assisted Housing and Education

A new Furman Center/Moelis Institute report, “Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Public Schools?,” finds that that families in Project-based Section 8 developments and Public Housing and recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers typically live near schools with lower test scores than the schools near other poor families. Only families in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) housing have access to schools that are slightly better than the schools available to other low-income families. The report also finds that, despite the flexibility provided by vouchers, families receiving Housing Choice Vouchers, on average, live near lower performing schools than families in Project-based Section 8 or LIHTC developments. The report also provides results for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, which show that assisted households tend to live near relatively higher performing schools in metropolitan areas with certain characteristics, including smaller size and less racial segregation. Read the full report here.