Pilot: Creating Moves to Opportunity in the Twin Cities

The goal of Creating Moves to Opportunity in the Twin Cities is to compare the effectiveness of using tenant-based Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers with mobility supports to using project-based vouchers to provide opportunities for low-income families with children to move to and persist in opportunity neighborhoods. In contrast to tenant-based vouchers, families awarded project-based vouchers in opportunity areas need not search for housing because the voucher is already assigned to a unit. Families on the waiting lists of partner agencies the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and the Metropolitan Council Housing and Redevelopment Agency will be invited to participate in this study. Those who choose to participate will be randomly assigned to the tenant-based treatment group, the project-based treatment group, or the control group. Mobility supports provided to both treatment groups will include education, pre- and post-move counseling, marketability coaching, and moving assistance funds. The primary outcomes will be to determine (1) if project-based vouchers are more cost-effective than tenant-based vouchers in increasing the number of families who move to high opportunity neighborhoods, and (2) whether the type of voucher (project-based vs. tenant-based) impacts persistence in opportunity areas.