"Supporting Neighborhood Opportunity in Massachusetts: A Study of Housing Mobility Program Outcomes (June 2023)"
The Supporting Neighborhood Opportunity in Massachusetts ("SNO Mass") program is a statewide housing mobility program, developed by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Liveable Communities (EOHLC)1 in 2019 for families with rental subsidies through EOHLC’s federally funded Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. SNO Mass offers housing counseling, financial assistance, and landlord incentives to expand housing choice and assist interested families in moving to “high opportunity” neighborhoods. To some extent, the HCV Program is a successor to HUD's Moving to Opportunity Program.
As of July 2023, 125 Massachusetts families (with a total of 270 children) have moved to higher-opportunity neighborhoods as a result of SNO Mass. Interviews with several of these families confirmed that moving has had a largely positive impact on both parents and children.
Most participants report they are very pleased with their new home and community, and identify specific ways in which their lives and their children’s lives have improved since they moved. While these early results are encouraging, more work is needed to ensure that more families (within and beyond the SNO Mass program) are able to move to high-opportunity neighborhoods. This is a potential model program for other states.
Read the Full Report and Executive Summary.
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Source: Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), https://www.prrac.org/supporting-neighborhood-opportunity-in-massachusetts-a-study-of-housing-mobility-program-outcomes/.
