Just Released: Evidence Matters Winter 2019 Issue

The Winter 2019 issue of Evidence Matters: Transforming Knowledge Into Housing and Community Development Policy, which focuses on the role that landlords play in the federal Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, is now available. This issue reviews existing literature on factors influencing landlords’ participation in the HCV program; highlights recent, HUD-sponsored research on landlord attitudes toward the program; and examines incentive-based strategies that some public housing agencies deploy to increase landlord participation.

Key Findings:

• The success of the HCV program depends on the participation of private-market landlords. HUD, and the public housing agencies that administer the voucher program, can work to reduce administrative burdens and actively recruit and incentivize landlord participation.
• While landlord participation has been an understudied aspect of the HCV program, recent research found that many landlords do not accept vouchers, and that they refuse vouchers for a variety of reasons. These can include financial considerations, concerns about tenants, and administrative burdens.
• Incentive programs, such those being deployed by housing agencies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Marin County, California, have increased voucher uptake in high-opportunity areas and improved the lease-up rate for voucher holders.

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