The Unassuming Economist

From Raj Chetty’s (Harvard University) Testimony Before the House Financial Services Committee:

“Stable housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods can provide a critical foundation for a variety of outcomes such as future earnings, health, and education. Failing to meet our children’s basic housing needs serves to worsen already-stark racial and economic disparities and bar generations from growing up and joining the middle class.

Today, we have an unprecedented opportunity to expand access to neighborhoods that research shows are foundational to children’s and families’ long-term success. Well-designed expansions of the Housing Choice Voucher program, public housing investments, the Housing Tax Credit, and place-based investments could significantly increase housing supply and access to opportunity. Such investments can give all children an opportunity to grow-up in communities that will support their long-term success.

More broadly, to achieve long-term mobility for all children in the United States, we must reduce historic patterns of segregation that have limited access to opportunity-rich neighborhoods, particularly for Black and Hispanic Americans. Equally important, we must also increase opportunity in communities that do not presently see such outcomes. Expanding access to affordable housing can be valuable on both fronts. We must continue to deploy our resources towards increasing options for low- and middle-income families living in areas currently offering high levels of opportunity, and simultaneously to maintain and expand high-quality housing options and community development efforts in areas that currently offer lower levels of opportunity. These strategies will help ensure that all families have a true choice about where to live, reduce the present bifurcation between ‘high’ and ‘low; opportunity areas across the country, and give all children – irrespective of their race, ethnicity, or family income – a chance of achieving the American Dream.”