Expanding Housing Choice
Mobility Works is a national membership organization that works to promote self-determination among low-income families, expand housing choice, and support families with HCVs to move to safe communities with quality housing and high-performing schools.
Helping Families Move
Mobility Works is a consortum of nonprofit groups, researchers, and policy experts that work to help low-income families move from low-opportunity neighborhoods into diverse communities with high performing schools
About Housing Mobility
Hear directly from Dallas, Texas, renters who want to use their housing choice vouchers to move their families into neighborhoods with great schools, low crime, and access to job centers.
Housing Statistics
2.2 million
2.2 million low-income households are served by the federal Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, which provides a subsidy for rent in privately owned apartments and houses. It is the largest rental subsidy program in the U.S.
1 in 5
Only 1 household out of every 5 that qualify for federal rental assistance receives it. About half of HCV waiting lists are currently closed, and of the lists that are open, the longest ones have average wait times of up to eight years.
50/50
Currently only half of families with HCVs live in states or localities with laws protecting them against source of income discrimination. The other half can legitimately be refused a lease because they wish to use a voucher.
66% v 6%
66% of Black children grow up in neighborhoods with at least 20% poverty, while this is true for only 6% of white children. Only 10% of Black children grow up in neighborhoods with less than 10% poverty, while 60% of white children do.
The StoriesRead our collection of personal stories that highlight unique experiences with housing mobility

From Ruby to Christina

Elijah in Flight
Housing Mobility in the News
- Families with Section 8 Vouchers Can Access More Money to Live in Safer Neighborhoods (CBS 8 – San Diego, CA) April 25, 2022
- Here’s Why a For-Profit Company is Buying Homes to Rent to Section 8 Tenants (San Antonio Report) March 13, 2022
- Want Landlords to Lease to Families With Housing Vouchers? Try Asking in New Ways (Route Fifty) March 10, 2022
- More Housing Vouchers Are Coming to Texas. Will Landlords Accept Them? (Dallas Observer) May 19, 2021
- Iowa is Making it Harder to be a Low-Income Renter (Vox) May 5, 2021
- The Case for Universal Rental Assistance (The Appeal) May 15, 2020
- How Wealthy Towns Keep People With Housing Vouchers Out (Connecticut Mirror / Pro Publica) January 9, 2020
- Vouchers Can Help the Poor Find Homes. But Landlords Often Won’t Accept Them. (Vox) December 10, 2019
- Letter to the Editor: Section 8 Needs Updating (Baltimore Sun) November 7, 2019
- ‘I Just Want More for Them’: New Program Aims to Boost Families’ Economic Mobility (Charlotte Observer) August 30, 2019
- OPINION: How We Can Turn Housing Mobility Into Economic Opportunity (Governing Magazine) May 13, 2019
- Chicago’s Section 8 Vouchers Increasing In Black Communities, Declining In White Neighborhoods (WBEZ 91.5-Chicago) May 2, 2019
- State Policymakers are Making Affordable Housing Problems Worse in Texas (Texas Tribune) April 17, 2019
- How Poor Americans Get Exploited by Their Landlords (CityLab) March 21, 2019
- Preventing Discrimination or Burdensome Regulation? City, Landlords Going to Court Over Section 8 Law (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) February 10, 2019
- Editorial: Without enforcement teeth, discrimination abounds against Section 8 tenants (St. Louis Post) February 5, 2019
- For the Poor, Elderly and Disabled, Section 8 Housing Hard to Find in South St. Louis (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) January 31, 2019
- Over the Past Five Weeks, Fair-Housing Advocacy Nearly Collapsed (Mother Jones) January 25, 2019
- Experts: Jacksonville Has An Affordable Housing Shortage (WJCT) January 10, 2019
- St. Louis housing program helps Section 8 tenants move into better neighborhoods (St. Louis Post) December 19, 2018
- WHY D.C.’S HOUSING VOUCHERS ARE WORKING BETTER THAN THOSE IN OTHER CITIES (Pacific Standard) December 19, 2018
- Leaving Baltimore behind (Vox) November 30, 2018
- The American Dream Is Harder To Find In Some Neighborhoods (NPR) October 1, 2018
- If Ben Carson was stumbling at HUD, would anyone know? (Dallas Morning News) September 17, 2018
- Tickets From Poverty to a Better Future (New York Times) September 12, 2018
- Getting a Section 8 Voucher Is Hard. Finding a Landlord Willing to Accept It Is Harder. (Stateline) August 31, 2018
- ‘Section 8 Need Not Apply’: States and Cities Outlaw Housing Discrimination (Governing) August 29, 2018
- California Legislature passes housing desegregation measure in rebuke to President Trump (Los Angeles Times) August 27, 2018
- Fair Housing’s New Champions (New York Times) June 7, 2018
- The Seattle Area Is Solving One of Housing’s Biggest Challenges (Slate) May 15, 2018
- Housing program used to break up high-poverty areas in Baltimore to stop taking applicants (The Baltimore Sun) February 13, 2017
- A Better Place: Two Approaches to Reducing Concentrated Poverty (The Huffington Post) February 13, 2017
- The Urban Poor Shall Inherit Poverty (American Prospect) January 7, 2014
- “Division Street, U.S.A.” (New York Times) October 26, 2013
- Changing neighborhoods can change your life (NPR Report) February 13, 2013