A Place of Opportunity: Research Directions on Low-Income Neighborhoods and Fostering Economic Mobility

Evidence suggests that neighborhoods matter for low-income individuals’ life trajectories. Extensive federal and foundation resources have been devoted to “place-based” strategies designed to help individuals by addressing the communities where they live. Two main strategies have emerged: 1) attempts to help people living in settings of concentrated poverty move to areas of economic opportunity, and 2) efforts to improve or preserve neighborhoods for current and future residents who have low incomes. This brief from MDRC summarizes information from recent studies of these strategies. For example, there were long-term benefits, such as higher incomes and college attainment, for children who were 12 or younger when their families moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods through the federal housing voucher program. However, encouraging low-income families to move to higher-income neighborhoods cannot be the only policy response. Instead, there must be complementary and interconnected strategies to improve neighborhoods for low-income residents and increase their mobility.