Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/130694
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Working Papers No. 15-11
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
Abstract: 
We examine the impact of subsidized housing on homelessness using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the largest place-based housing program in the United States. To generate quasi-experimental variation in housing placements, we exploit a discontinuous increase in the amount of tax credits available to projects placed in certain high-poverty neighborhoods. Using data from the U.S. Census and HUD, we find that LIHTC project installation has no significant impact on neighborhood homelessness but does significantly reduce county-level homelessness. Our analysis suggests that the mobility of the homeless across neighborhoods helps to explain this result. These findings are consistent with the impacts of place-based policies crossing local boundaries and homeless housing demand that is sensitive to rental prices.
Subjects: 
low-income housing
tax credits
homelessness
regression discontinuity
JEL: 
H20
H31
I32
R21
R31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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