Customer service, customer service, customer service.
That’s the conclusion of a paper published last month from a team of sociologists at Johns Hopkins University about the best way to help people using housing vouchers successfully move to neighborhoods with low poverty rates and access to good schools, jobs and other amenities.
Published in the latest issue of Cityscape, a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research, the study suggests that financial assistance and accessible information aren’t enough to help people lease-up in better-resourced communities. Rather, it’s the dedicated staff behind the scenes who make all the difference in voucher recipients’ search for new homes.
Sometimes referred to as housing navigators or counselors, they take on a range of tasks, including providing hands-on support to households as they browse housing options and make contact with landlords. They also may assist families with financial readiness, banking or the rental application process.
There’s a belief that people who choose not to move to high-opportunity neighborhoods aren’t interested in leaving their homes. But the report’s authors argue that those households may be encountering problems they can’t solve on their own.
The research about the importance of strong navigators has helped inform a federal bill co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen that aims to add to the supply of housing vouchers and provide additional funding for counseling services. The bill has not yet passed, but the Maryland Democrat said in a statement that he’ll continue to press for it.
Stefanie DeLuca, the James Coleman Professor of Sociology & Social Policy at Johns Hopkins and the paper’s lead author, said the legislation provides an “evidence-based” solution to a policy problem that besets many voucher holders — using the voucher to move to high-opportunity neighborhoods and staying there.
“And now we know how to do it,” DeLuca said. “We know what works.”
The Cityscape paper, authored by DeLuca and graduate student Jacqueline Groccia, builds off additional research that found an almost 40 percentage-point difference in how people fared between those who received vouchers and high-quality counseling and those who received only vouchers. Of those who received both vouchers and individualized services, 53% successfully relocated to high-opportunity areas, compared with 15% of those who received vouchers alone.
Research shows several benefits associated with living in high-opportunity neighborhoods, including improvements in children’s health, parents’ mental wellness, and kids’ long-term earnings and employment.
High-quality counseling, according to the study, means customized support that is tailored to a client’s specific needs. For some families, that means a check-in as they search for housing or an initial phone call to a landlord. Others, DeLuca said, might need more frequent interactions or require more flexibility from staff.
The researchers examined two organizations that assist families who move, or want to move, to private-market housing with vouchers: one in Baltimore and another in Seattle.
In Maryland, the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership administers the housing mobility program as a subcontractor for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. In addition to providing rental assistance, the direct social-service workers might help people mediate conflicts with landlords. They also might help with transportation, budgeting or making housing unit referrals.
Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership Executive Director Adria Crutchfield said the paper validated what the organization already knew to be true.
“Direct social service providers are generally under-recognized,” Crutchfield said. She added that she hopes the studies can spawn more vouchers from the federal government and spark discussions about other policy gaps, including in the child care and health care fields, that limit low-income families’ potential.
So, who are these housing navigators?
FaShaunDa Walton, BRHP’s housing mobility director, said the staff of more than 50 housing mobility team members don’t all have experience in this line of work. Many are connected via temporary employment agencies and find fulfillment in the business of helping others. And some may have backgrounds in nonprofit, real estate or rental assistance work.
“It draws a lot of people-pleasers and a lot of empaths,” Crutchfield said. Some staffers may have experienced housing instability as well, and can see themselves reflected in whom they serve.
DeLuca’s team has interviewed several voucher holders in both Seattle and Baltimore and has recorded consistently positive accounts of their experiences with counselors. One Baltimore woman, a mom who goes by the name Freckles, said the organization provided helpful workshops and helped her repair her credit.
“And I’ve been maintaining it,” Freckles said, according to the Cityscape paper. “They taught me so much stuff.”
Crutchfield said the staff trains in trauma-informed practices, motivational interviewing and, of course, customer service. Sometimes, the staff members make mistakes, she added, but the organization treats them as learning opportunities and teachable moments.
DeLuca, of Hopkins, said she hopes her research can dispel myths about people being uninterested in moving to high-opportunity neighborhoods. Instead, it should be used to educate people about the real barriers voucher holders face that can be overcome.
“This sort of work is really key,” she said, “and really important for state and local agencies to know about, too.”
