An evaluation of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development's Moving to Work voucher program

Since implementation nearly 10 years ago there has been limited research into the outcomes of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development's Moving to Work rental subsidy program. The Congressionally authorized Moving to Work Demonstration program (MtW) deregulated housing agencies in order to provide flexibility to design and test innovative approaches to administering housing assistance programs. In 1999, DHCD began planning and implementation for two MtW pilots, one in Boston, targeting the shelter population, and another in Southern Worcester County, targeting working or "work-ready" households. The current program design provides 183 clients with fixed shallow rental subsidy amounts, support budgets, time limits, and case management to encourage and facilitate self-sufficiency. Preparing to transition its full HCVP portfolio to MtW status, DHCD initiated a process of evaluation and learning focused on the pilots. These lessons, which involve data collection processes and program implementation as well as outcomes, will inform the future of the statewide MtW program. This research is a qualitative and quantitative assessment of both pilot programs. The research used available baseline and current client employment, income and locational data to determine how effective DHCD's MtW model was at facilitating self-sufficiency. Additionally, focus groups with MtW clients and interviews with administrators were conducted to understand the impact and effectiveness of the program from multiple perspectives.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Mahdavi, Pedram

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Phillip Thompson.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Massachusetts. Housing & Community Development.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49871

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49871