Does urban public housing diminish the social capital and labor force activity of its tenants?

This paper investigates the effect of urban public housing on the social ca pital and labor force activity of its tenants using cross-sectional survey, data front the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MSCUI). A structural equation model of the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of public ho using and neighborhood disadvantage on social capital and labor force activ ity is specified and fitted to these data. The modeling results suggest tha t urban public housing is strongly associated with neighborhood disadvantag e but has little or no direct effect on either social capital or labor forc e activity. And while public housing may have indirect effects or? social c apital and labor force activity through neighborhood poverty, these indirec t effects appear to be small. These findings have implications for the curr ent emphasis ir in urban public housing policy on moving residents into the private housing market and reducing poverty concentration. (C) 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.