Public and Subsidized Housing as a Platform for Becoming a United States Citizen

Transcription

1 Public and Subsidized Housing as a Platform for Becoming a United States Citizen John I. Carruthers The George Washington University Natasha T. Duncan Mercyhurst College Brigitte S. Waldorf Purdue University

2 Overview Each year, hundreds of thousands of people immigrate to the United States seeking a better way of life, and still hundreds of thousands more become citizens. Many spend time living in public and subsidized housing, sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and, each year, thousands of these individuals attain citizenship. This paper presents an econometric analysis the propensity of noncitizens living in HUD-sponsored housing to naturalize. Providing housing and other forms of public assistance to noncitizens is controversial but the fact of the matter is that, under current rules, many qualify for aid so, facing that fact, an important contribution of this research is to identify the type of program that works best in the context of broader national objectives. The key finding is that the market based approach of the housing choice voucher program and the spatial mobility it facilitates significantly and substantively contribute to naturalization.

3 Introduction The title of this paper is drawn from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development s (HUD s) Strategic Plan specifically, from Strategic Goal 3, which is to: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life. This policy statement, general as it is, is ambitious and holds wideranging potential for American communities. Beneath it, are more specific objectives, including Sub-goal 3C, to: utilize HUD assistance to improve economic security and self-sufficiency. Not only are such aspirations objectively desirable, they are empirically evaluable a condition necessary for advancing the kind of evidence-based policy promoted by Secretary Shawn Donovan: does HUD assistance truly improve economic security and self-sufficiency?

4 Introduction (continued ) This paper addresses that overarching public policy question via an analysis of the propensity of noncitizens living in HUD-sponsored (public and subsidized) housing to naturalize. This may seem an oblique approach to evaluating the effectiveness of HUD s general strategy, but it is not: immigration and naturalization are among the dominant issues the federal government presently faces. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people immigrate to the United States and still hundreds of thousands more become citizens in fiscal year 2010 alone, over a million people arrived from other parts of the world and more than 600,000 permanent residents naturalized.

5 Number of New Permanent Residents and Naturalizations,

6 Specific Research Objectives 1. Review previous research on the role of naturalization in destination countries like the United States. 2. Outline paths to citizenship and document recent immigration trends, including the growth in the number of noncitizens participating in public and subsidized housing programs. 3. Estimate a series of binary transition models characterizing individual naturalization outcomes among program participants between and Use the estimation results to set out some recommendations intended to inform federal policy.

7 Table 1. Individuals Public and Assisted Housing, 2008 Project- based Public Housing Housing Choice Voucher Mod Rehab Row Totals Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number United States Citizen 2,020, % 4,696, % 48, % 6,765,059 Eligible Non citizen 91, % 143, % 3, % 238,013 Ineligible Non Citizen 15, % 12, % % 28,365 Pending Verification 3, % 1, % % 4,835 Unknown 1, % 6, % % 7,794 Column Totals 2,131, % 4,860, % 52, % 7,044,066 Source: United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, special tabulation. 27

8 Background

9 Becoming a United States Citizen The United States is indisputably a nation of immigrants: its demographic profile, socioeconomic structure, political landscape, record of domestic and international success, and very existence are all owed, in ways large and small, to people coming to it from elsewhere in the world. It has a well-developed legal framework for receiving immigrants and enabling them to become citizens even compared to other destination countries, it stands out for having policies that enable high volumes of immigration, permanent residence, and naturalization Federal assimilation services are not systemically available so it is incumbent upon the individual to identify, navigate, and complete their own path to naturalization.

10 Becoming a United States Citizen (continued ) As Dowell Myers (2012) notes in a recent op-ed in the New York Times, this year, DHS will spend just $18 million, or less than a tenth of one percent of its budget, on helping people assimilate. In order to find their way through the system, immigrants must rely upon their personal knowledge and acumen or turn to resources provided by their communities, including neighborhood and/or faithbased organizations that can act in place of government (Hungerman 2005).

11 Paths to Citizenship

12 Permanent Residents by Type of Admission, % 1,400,000 45% 40% 35% 1,200,000 1,000,000 30% 800,000 25% 20% 600,000 15% 10% 5% 400, ,000 0% New Permanent Residents Immediate Relatives Family Sponsored Employment- based Diversity Refugees 0

13 Federal Spending on Housing Assistance, $ % $70 $ % 1.62% 1.65% 1.64% 1.60% 1.53% 1.44% 1.46% 1.36% 1.45% $ % $60.50 $ % 1.6% 1.4% $50 1.2% $40 $37.81 $38.42 $41.57 $43.43 $43.81 $43.65 $42.73 $43.08 $ % $30 0.8% 0.6% $20 0.4% $10 0.2% $ % Federal Housing Outlays on Housing Assitance Percent of All Federal Outlays Spent on Housing Assitance

14 Noncitizen Heads of Household Living in Public and Assisted Housing, ,400, % 1,200,000 1,000, % 4.81% 4.48% 4.36% 4.15% 5.00% 4.00% 800, % 3.00% 600, % 2.04% 1.99% 1.93% 2.00% 400, , , , , , , , , , , , % New Permenant Residents Noncitizens in Federal Housing Programs Percent Ineligible 0.00%

15 Welfare Magnets? There are two broad issues embedded in the matter of welfare magnets: 1. The general possibility that immigrants make greater use of public assistance than the native population: As Borjas (1995) notes, it is not immigrant-ness that generates high welfare participation rates in the immigrant population it is the socioeconomic characteristics of the immigrant population. 2. The specific extent to which the location choices of immigrants are influenced by place-to-place variation namely, across states in the availability of benefits: There is easily observable (Borjas 1999, page 608) evidence that a systematic sorting process leads poor immigrants to coalesce in states that have generous benefits.

16 Public and Subsidized Housing Public housing. Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered singlefamily houses to high-rise apartments. Housing choice vouchers. The housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments.

17 Empirical Analysis

18 Data The analysis, which is based on micro-data from the Office of Public and Indian Housing s annual Family Report, involves all noncitizen heads of household living in HUD-sponsored housing between 2007 and The three years of data yield two years of potential transition to citizenship ( and ) and there are a total of 120,791 and 126,765 individuals in the two timeframes, respectively. Note that the samples are not mutually exclusive: as long as they are still in HUD-sponsored housing, individuals that do not attain citizenship between 2007 and 2008 remain in the analysis between 2008 and Across both years, just over 60% were in voucher programs, about 8% relocated, and around 2.5% naturalized. The latter of these facts that, each year, thousands of noncitizens living public and subsidized housing attain United States citizenship is a striking discovery all by itself.

19 Location of Noncitizens Living in HUD-sponsored Housing

20 Table 2a. Non citizen Heads of Household by State, Voucher Relocated Naturalized Total Number Pct. Total Number Pct. Total Number Pct. Total US 120,791 76, % 9, % 3, % AK % % % AL % % % AR % % % AZ 1,999 1, % % % CA 35,819 29, % 2, % 1, % CO 1, % % % CT % % % DC % % % DE % % % FL 7,484 5, % % % GA % % % HI 1, % % % IA % % % ID % % % IL 1, % % % IN % % % KS % % % KY % % % LA % % % MA 7,195 3, % % % MD 1, % % % ME % % % MI % % % MN 4,779 1, % % % MO % % % MS % % % MT % % % NC % % % ND % % % NE % % % NH % % % NJ 2,534 1, % % % NM % % % NV % % % NY 31,585 15, % 1, % % OH % % % OK % % % OR % % % PA 1, % % % RI 1, % % % SC % % % SD % % % TN % % % TX 8,509 5, % % % UT % % % VA % % % VT % % % WA 2,396 1, % % % WI % % % WV % % % WY % % % 28

21 Table 2b. Non citizen Heads of Household by State, Voucher Relocated Naturalized Total Number Pct. Total Number Pct. Total Number Pct. Total US 126,765 79, % 11, % 3, % AK % % % AL % % % AR % % % AZ 2,112 1, % % % CA 35,404 29, % 3, % 1, % CO 1, % % % CT % % % DC % % % DE % % % FL 7,835 5, % % % GA % % % HI 1, % % % IA % % % ID % % % IL 1, % % % IN % % % KS % % % KY % % % LA % % % MA 7,495 4, % % % MD 1, % % % ME % % % MI % % % MN 5,263 1, % % % MO % % % MS % % % MT % % % NC % % % ND % % % NE % % % NH % % % NJ 2,785 1, % % % NM % % % NV % % % NY 34,762 16, % 1, % % OH % % % OK % % % OR % % % PA 1, % % % RI 1, % % % SC % % % SD % % % TN % % % TX 8,704 5, % 1, % % UT % % % VA 1, % % % VT % % % WA 2,454 1, % % % WI % % % WV % % % WY % % % 29

22 Location of All Non citizen Heads of Household (light), Voucher Participants (medium), and Naturalizations (dark) in

23 Location of All Non citizen Heads of Household (light), Voucher Participants (medium), and Naturalizations (dark) in

24 Regions,

25 Regions,

26 Methodology The analysis focuses on immigrants propensity to obtain U.S. citizenship while in residing in HUDsponsored housing. Probit models, wherein the dependent variable is set equal to 1 if an individual attained citizenship and 0 if not, have been estimated for each of the nine transition years between 2000 and 2009 and as a panel with all of the data pooled together. Each model contains state fixed effects, to control for state-specific policies that may affect naturalization outcomes.

27 Explanatory Variables Individual Characteristics: age; female dummy; Asian dummy; Black dummy; Hispanic dummy. Household Characteristics: HH Size; income; H61 dummy; H62 dummy; H64 dummy; H65 dummy; H66 dummy. PIH Program: sojourn - years in PIH program; voucher-relocate; voucher-no- relocate Neighborhood Characteristics: median HH income; % FB naturalized; % FB noncitizen; % housing < 1940; % commute > 45 min. Location: distance from CBSA center; distance from nearest tract.

28 Summary of Key Findings

29 Recommendations and Conclusion

30 Recommendations The preliminary finding that led to the detailed analysis contained in this paper that many immigrants spend time living in HUD-sponsored housing and that, each year, thousands of these individuals attain United States citizenship ought help temper concerns, among researchers, policymakers, and the public at large, about noncitizens making undue use of the welfare state. There is a systematic pattern of those living in public and subsidized housing attaining citizenship, and this outcome is indisputably a step toward greater economic security and self-sufficiency. Moreover, it is directly in line with the broader national objectives of federal immigration policy: unifying families, meeting labor demands, providing asylum for refugees and other persecuted people, and ensuring diversity in the population. These are laudable objectives that are important to the country as a whole.

31 Recommendations (continued ) That many immigrants arriving on American shores do so poor give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, as the base of the Statue of Liberty reads is virtually tautological: international migration is extremely costly, both financially, and personally and rational individuals would not be willing to incur those costs if they did not expect to improve their lot in life. There is substantive evidence that immigration has net benefits to the United States and, for this reason, it seems, to the present authors at least, that is reasonable for the nation to expect to help some of these people make the transition to becoming productive members of mainstream American society. The clear implication of the econometric analysis is that, in terms of housing, voucher programs work much better than project-based programs. Enabling individuals to find housing via the private rental market makes it possible for them to work out their own life solutions, according to idiosyncratic preferences and constraints.

32 Recommendations (continued ) It is not vouchers themselves that promote naturalization, but, instead, the choice and spatial mobility they facilitate a conclusion highlighted by the partitioning of the of the voucher variable according to those who relocated and those who did not. Individuals in voucher programs are more likely to naturalize than individuals living in public housing, and, what is more, they are seven times more likely to attain citizenship if they relocated during the time period they transitioned to citizenship. Though it is impossible to know what is going on underneath that is, what the exact link between relocation and naturalization is in each circumstance a general inference is that the ability choose where to live, plus if and when to relocate, matters. In this way, the findings of the analysis strongly support HUD s move toward market-based housing assistance, initiated in the 1970s with the creation of the voucher program, as a means of using its assistance to improve economic security and self-sufficiency.

33 Summary and Conclusion The single most important finding of this analysis is that individuals participating in voucher programs, as opposed to living in public housing developments, are significantly more likely to naturalize. This finding suggests that the federal government s move toward market-based housing assistance is in line with HUD s goal of using its assistance to improve economic security and self-sufficiency. Next steps include further testing of the empirical models and the development of specific policy recommendations.

34 Dedication My favorite non-u.s. citizen: Giuliana Canè

35 Bella Donna

36 Thank you! Questions!?