CT housing vouchers steer recipients to segregated neighborhoods, study finds

Connecticut families who rely on state and federal housing vouchers to pay their rents are often forced to live in racially and socioeconomically segregated communities, according to a new study on the voucher programs’ flaws.

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) , also known as Section 8, and the state’s Rental Assistance Program (RAP) , have long histories of leaving recipients in racially segregated urban areas.

Civil rights organization Open Communities Alliance (OCA) recently released the report after about a year of research, according to OCA Executive Director Erin Boggs. Housing vouchers only pay for a fraction of the rental cost.

This is why many of the apartments that fit within the voucher budget are in urban areas with a disproportionately high number of Black and Brown residents, according to Boggs.

Voucher values are based on the Fair Market Rent, set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, for geographic areas rather than specific towns, Boggs said. “A number is provided by HUD that is supposed to gain voucher holders access to 40% of the rental housing in a region, and that region is very widely defined,” Boggs said.