Fifteen years later: can residential mobility programs provide a long-term escape from neighborhood segregation, crime, and poverty?

Demography. 2005 Feb;42(1):51-73. doi: 10.1353/dem.2005.0005.

Abstract

We examined whether the Gautreaux residential mobility program, which moved poor black volunteer families who were living in inner-city Chicago into more-affluent and integrated neighborhoods, produced long-run improvements in the neighborhood environments of the participants. We found that although all the participants moved in the 6 to 22 years since their initial placements, they continued to reside in neighborhoods with income levels that matched those of their placement neighborhoods. Families who were placed in higher-income, mostly white neighborhoods were currently living in the most-affluent neighborhoods. Families who were placed in lower-crime and suburban locations were most likely to reside in low-crime neighborhoods years later.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Black People / statistics & numerical data*
  • Chicago
  • Crime / ethnology
  • Crime / statistics & numerical data*
  • Family / ethnology
  • Humans
  • Income / classification
  • Income / trends*
  • Population Dynamics / statistics & numerical data
  • Population Dynamics / trends*
  • Poverty / ethnology
  • Poverty / statistics & numerical data*
  • Poverty Areas
  • Prejudice*
  • Program Evaluation
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Suburban Population
  • Urban Population