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Using an Expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program to Improve Equity for Black Households at Risk of Homelessness

Jill Khadduri

White Paper

December 2, 2020

Forty percent of all people who experience homelessness are Black. This reflects, in part, the higher levels of poverty among Black people compared with White people, the product of centuries of discrimination in employment and education. Poverty among people of color is likely to get worse as a result of job loss during the COVID pandemic. But housing discrimination also has had an important role, because of its profound intergenerational effects.  Abt’s Jill Khadduri explains that the Housing Choice Voucher program is time-tested and successful in providing stable, affordable housing to people of all races and ethnicities—in particular, to Black households.  The voucher program should be expanded to promote racial equity and made even more successful during an expansion.