Affordable housing program tenants and their access to public transportation and employment
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Affordable housing program tenants and their access to public transportation and employment Han John Park1 · Kwangyul Choi2,3 Received: 23 August 2019 / Accepted: 3 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This research examines the level of access to public transportation and job resources specific to tenants residing in rental assistance program units in Harris County, TX, USA. It evaluates the share of the subsidized housing renters from public transit facilities using preset distances and the availability of jobs from the renters’ homes using the job accessibility index. Particularly, this research compares the residential outcomes of the two major rental assistance programs—Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) as a tenant-based program and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) as a project-based program—and the degree of access to public transportation facilities—light rail transit (LRT) stations and transit centers. Furthermore, it assesses spatial distributions of the assisted housing program units and jobs that are available to low-income earners. The research finds that the HCV program tenants reside in neighborhoods with greater accessibility to light rail stations and transit centers based on the network distance using the street routes and connections. It also finds that the inner-city HCV residents have a higher level of low-paying job accessibility than their LIHTC counterparts, whereas the suburban areas offer equal or less favorable job opportunities to the HCV tenants than the LIHTC counterparts. Keywords Accessibility · Employment · Housing choice voucher (HCV) · Light rail transit (LRT) · Low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) · Transit center
1 Introduction Affordable housing programs in the United States are intended to provide low-income households with housing units that meet certain quality standards so that qualified lowincome households could live in better residential units or settle in more desirable neighborhoods through financial support. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) specifies that the housing choice voucher (HCV) program is to assist very * Han John Park [email protected] 1
Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University, Houston, USA
2
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
3
Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA
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low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to be able to afford rental units in the private market and that their goal is to make it possible for the program’s tenants to live in decent, safe, and sanitary housing (HUD 2020a). The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program issues tax credits to acquire, rehabilitate, or newly construct rental housing units that can be rented by lower-income households (HUD 2020c). Good quality housing is an essential element for everyone’s life, regardless of their status. Low-income populations need to have a stable income source to
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