This study examines the experiences of families participating in a housing relocation program in Los Angeles, California. Using data from self-administered baseline surveys, telephone interviews with 284 adults, in-depth interviews with 27 adults, the 1990 Census, and Los Angeles Police Department crime statistics, this dissertation investigates three research questions. First, it documents if and where families move through the program. Second, this project examines whether or not participants are able to establish social connections shortly after moving. Third, this dissertation endeavors to explain how children and parents make or do not make social connections.
The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) Program offers families living in federally-subsidized low-income housing developments the opportunity to move to other neighborhoods. Program participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups: MTO experimental which receives housing vouchers and supportive services conditional on moving to low-poverty neighborhoods, Section 8 comparison which receives unrestricted housing vouchers, and control which receives nothing.
Results show that participants offered unrestricted housing vouchers are more likely to move than those offered vouchers to move to low-poverty neighborhoods and residential mobility has negative effects on social connections important for children. However, social factors and structural resources influence both the probability of moving and the likelihood of making connections.
Young participants, victims of violent crime, and participants with social support in the origin neighborhood are more likely to move to low-poverty neighborhoods than other participants. Moving is harder on the social connections of teenagers than young children. Furthermore, moving to low-poverty neighborhoods moderates the negative effects of moving on social connections for teens and parents. The pattern of results persists even when instrumental variable estimations adjust for factors that influence the probability of moving. I conclude that residential mobility is an influential and sorely understudied mechanism for the reproduction of inequality.