Two new pieces of research from the MacArthur-supported Mixed-Income Development Study examine the movements of Chicago’s public housing residents over the past decade. Chicago’s Public Housing Transformation: What Happened to the Residents? finds that, at the ten-year mark of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation, residents who chose scattered-site housing have faired better than those using vouchers or in traditional or mixed-income developments. Why Do So Few Residents Return to Mixed-Income Developments? identifies attachments to current living situation, time pressures, and the anticipated risks and rewards of the mixed-income environment as the key factors in determining whether public housing residents will return to the mixed-income developments that are often built to replace traditional public housing.
