Housing: Mixed-Income Housing Developments

Research Gaps

What are Research Gaps?

Prior to and during the literature review and data analysis, the review team and the Community Preventive Services Task Force attempt to address the key questions of what interventions work, for whom, under what conditions, and at what cost. Lack of sufficient information often leaves one or more of these questions unanswered. The Community Guide refers to these as "research gaps." Research gaps can be pulled together in the form of a basic set of questions to inform a research agenda for those in the field or can be a more extensive narrative that weaves mention of gaps into a discussion generated by findings from the review.

Identified Research Gaps

Effectiveness

The degree to which creating mixed-income housing developments in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty increases neighborhood socioeconomic heterogeneity could not be determined in this systematic review. Therefore, basic research questions remain.

• Are such housing developments effective in beginning a process of neighborhood revitalization that makes an area more attractive to higher-income households as well, or are changes to a neighborhood’s demographic makeup limited to the housing development itself?
• How does variability among housing developments affect important outcomes, such as differences in the income groups represented, the degree of representation by each income group, and whether or not the units occupied by the various income groups are intermixed? The types and quality of social services provided at a housing development may influence the degree of social integration among tenants of various income groups, which is considered an important intermediate outcome of income mixing. Similarly, the employability of disadvantaged household heads may be increased in developments where job training, child care, or other pertinent services are provided.
• To what degree does bringing higher-income households into neighborhoods of concentrated poverty affect these neighborhoods in terms of crime, the quality and availability of public services, residents’ access to market goods and services, and neighborhood physical conditions?

Other Positive or Negative Effects

If mixed-income housing developments are effective in beginning a process of revitalization that attracts higher-income households to a neighborhood, to what extent does this revitalization and the related increases in housing costs ultimately push poor families out of the area?