The challenge
Families in high-poverty public housing had few routes to better neighborhoods.
The case
From 1994 the US Department of Housing and Urban Development ran a lottery among families in public housing in five cities: some received vouchers to move to low-poverty neighborhoods, while others did not. Early results disappointed: parents' earnings and employment did not improve, though their mental and physical health did. But a later study found that children who moved before age 13 earned about 31% more as adults and were more likely to attend college.
Why the results were mixed
Judged too early, the program looked like a failure. The biggest benefits went to young children, showing that neighborhood effects build up over years of childhood.
Sources
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