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Abstract
The ten-county Atlanta Metropolitan Region was used to assess the performance of a tenant-based rental assistance program (the Section 8 certificate and voucher program) relative to two types of project-based rental assistance programs (public housing and private subsidized housing). The effectiveness of the program was examined with respect to the goal of promoting greater economic and racial/ethnic integration and quality of life for assisted households. Data for this study were obtained from the 1998 A Picture of Subsidized Households data set. Logistic and OLS regressions as well as descriptive data were used to analyze the data. The findings show that tenant-based rental assistance expands the housing opportunities of assisted households in better quality neighborhoods. Unlike public housing residents, certificate and voucher recipients in the Atlanta Metropolitan Region are more likely to live in neighborhoods with low- to moderate-poverty levels. Tenant-based rental assistance, however, is not as effective in promoting greater racial/ethnic integration.