Vouchers help with rent, but many families with vouchers struggle to access good neighborhoods. Some may not know how to go beyond word of mouth about available rentals when researching areas. Others face discrimination from landlords during their search. So the vouchers recipients often end up concentrated in poor, distressed and segregated neighborhoods with low-performing schools.

Many efforts are underway to make these neighborhoods better places to live. But, to fully exercise their right to housing choice, families also need quality information about all the housing options available to them as well as the tools to overcome barriers to using their voucher.

Successful housing mobility programs in Baltimore, Dallas and Chicago have helped move thousands of children out of violent areas with toxic stresses. Once they moved to safer neighborhoods with high-performing, economically mixed schools, their test scores improved.

Studies have shown that kids who participated in mobility programs grew up to make more money and have fewer health problems. Meanwhile, voucher families without mobility programs face limited housing choices. This is especially true for black and Hispanic families, who are more likely than white voucher holders to live in poor, high-crime neighborhoods.