We use cookies to provide you with the best possible website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as cookies used for anonymous statistics, comfort settings, or displaying personalized content. You can decide which categories you want to allow. Please note that depending on your settings, some features of the website may not be available.

Cookie settings

These necessary cookies are required to enable the core functionality of the website. Opting out of these cookies is not possible.

cb-enable
This cookie stores the user's cookie consent status for the current domain. Expiry: 1 year.
laravel_session
Stores the session ID to recognize the user when the page reloads and to restore their login session. Expiry: 2 hours.
XSRF-TOKEN
Provides CSRF protection for forms. Expiry: 2 hours.
IZA Discussion Paper No. 18711
June 2026
Where to Build Affordable Housing? Evaluating the Tradeoffs of Location
Cody Cook, Pearl Z Li, Ariel J. Binder

How does the location of affordable housing affect the distribution of assistance, tenant welfare, and segregation? Using administrative data, we first show that, despite fixed eligibility requirements, developments in higher-opportunity neighborhoods disproportionately house tenants who are higher-income, less likely to have children, and far less likely to be Black or Hispanic. We then build a structural model in which households choose from both market-rate and affordable housing options, where the latter must be rationed. For existing developments, the targeting of assistance is driven mainly by which eligible households apply, with developer screening playing a smaller role. Simulating new developments across neighborhoods, we find that building in higher-opportunity locations raises aggregate tenant welfare and reduces segregation, but primarily benefits more moderate-need and white households at the expense of higher-need and minority households. Policy levers available after construction, such as lowering income limits, have more limited effects than the initial choice of location.

Communications
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer-ext@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Network Coordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

About IZA@LISER Network
Contact
IZA@LISER NETWORK (Current Site Operator):

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
11, Porte des Sciences
Maison des Sciences Humaines
L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette / Belval, Luxembourg

IZA Institute (In Liquidation):

Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH i. L.
Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 5-9, 53113 Bonn. Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894-0 | Fax: +49 228 3894-510
E-Mail: info@iza.org | Web: www.iza.org
Represented by: Martin T. Clemens (Liquidator)