Affordable Housing Tech & Data Series, Part 3
Getting Section 8 vouchers is just one hurdle facing low-income families; using the vouchers is another
By Jasmin Dial & Abbey Vannoy
“What was your experience finding a unit with your Section 8 voucher?” Learning Collider’s researchers asked AffordableHousing.com users in July 2022, driven by earlier findings that landlord participation in Section 8 is likely declining.
Over two-thirds of respondents held Section 8 vouchers at the time of the survey, proportional to the platform’s entire user base. Their responses illuminated key challenges in putting those vouchers to use. On the upside, understanding the hurdles is a step toward action and resolution.
Data Sourcing & Context
In this post, we revisit Learning Collider’s survey of AffordableHousing.com tenant users conducted in July 2022. Responses were captured from 4,000 users, 68% voucher holders. Elevating the experiences and voices of voucher holders is key to understanding how the program impacts its beneficiaries.
Partnering with AffordableHousing.com grants our researchers access to direct, real-time feedback as well as user behaviors through rental application systems and searches. Unlike specific PHAs who may conduct local participant surveys, Learning Collider analyzes responses and data nationally as well as by states and local jurisdictions.
Insights & Trends
When asked about the experiences of finding housing to use their Section 8 vouchers, we were quickly reminded how constrained housing choices can become. Among the non-mutually exclusive answers, more than half (54%) of respondents could not find an affordable unit. More than one-third (37%) indicated that landlords wouldn’t accept vouchers.
Less than one-third (30%) successfully used their voucher, even though they reported a broad geographic net in their search. Because we are surveying active users of a housing platform, the results would naturally skew towards those still searching.
For those individuals and families actively searching, and likely at many different stages in the process, we wanted to know where they would go next.
Strikingly, the back-up plans included places that Section 8 was designed to avoid: shelters, encampments, cars, motels, packed in with other relatives, and/or no plan at all.
Also striking was the frequency that landlords refused vouchers. This trend is further complicated by varying state-by-state, sometimes city-by-city, Sources of Income (SOI) laws. Many protect vouchers; others don’t.
To gain geographic perspective, we cross-referenced users’ locations with their relevant SOI laws. Thirty-six percent who reported that landlords refused vouchers live in and receive vouchers from PHAs in places where they cannot legally deny them.
This is one entry point for local policymakers and tech platforms to take action.
Useful Data Leads to Informed Policy & Action
Learning Collider’s ongoing data tracking and analysis using the AffordableHousing.com platform create ROI far beyond the dual partnership.
First, the data can substantiate observations likely being made at the local levels, where PHA staffers may see voucher holders struggle to find affordable units and put their vouchers to use. The research infrastructure allows us to zoom in and out from any geography, documenting how users apply to rentals and connect with them in real-time through qualitative surveys. This in turn allows HUD and its regional offices to make swift decisions intended to improve program implementation and impact.
For example, already burdened shelters or transitional housing programs may need interim support from HUD or states when seeing Section 8 voucher holders re-entering those emergency systems. Another example of the data’s usefulness relates to monitoring and flagging housing discrimination, especially in areas where Sources of Income laws mandate the acceptance of vouchers.
This brings us to the second opportunity where tech-for-good platforms like AffordableHousing.com can also act to prevent discriminatory language on the platform’s listings. Learning Collider and AffordableHousing.com are designing a tool to flag potential discrimination based on local laws and communicate pertinent information to landlords when posting or editing a listing.
Sharing our analysis with decision-makers and program specialists is core to our own research and operating strategy. It is often through the sharing that we consider new research questions and experiment with tech-driven interventions that potentially improve programs like Section 8. Most importantly, it ensures that our findings don’t get lost in the ivory tower, but are used to improve how we learn, live and work.
Learning Collider is accelerating equity and economic mobility through social science research and scalable, tech innovations in the areas of Education, Workforce, and Housing. Follow us here on Medium where we share research and data insights and amplify the voices of our team & partners.
