Subsidized housing and neighborhood racial transition: An empirical investigation

Popular wisdom has it that the development of project-based assisted housin g will cause whites to flee or avoid the surrounding neighborhood, leading to rapid racial transition. This article examines the question of whether t he development of several types of project-based, federally assisted housin g had an impact on neighborhood racial transition during the 1980s. In gene ral, the development of assisted housing in a neighborhood did not lead to racial transition, nor did it approach levels suggesting "white flight" in the few instances where racial transition did occur. The results of our analysis suggest that one of the major criticisms of pro ject-based assisted housing-that it contributes to racial segregation by ca using white flight-is not supported by empirical evidence.