New Paper: American murder mystery revisited: do housing voucher households cause crime?

October 5, 2012: A new journal article by Furman Center Co-Director Ingrid Gould Ellen and NYU Wagner Professor Katherine O’Regan finds that there is no direct causal relationship between the number of Housing Choice Voucher residents in a neighborhood and increased crime. Critics of the voucher system, which provides rent subsidies to allow low-income residents to live in otherwise unaffordable neighborhoods, have alleged that an increased presence of voucher holders leads to increased crime in some neighborhoods. Systematically and empirically studying the question for the first time, the article finds that while neighborhoods with a higher proportion of voucher holding residents tend to see higher crime rates, there is not a causal relationship. The research reveals that other neighborhood characteristics are much more significant in determining crime.  Instead, it appears that voucher holders tend to move in after a neighborhood experiences a rise in crime, suggesting that the intended role of vouchers to enhance holders’ neighborhood choice may be limited. Read the full paper here.