Housing voucher users choosing the suburbs

YOUNGSTOWN

Americans who use housing choice vouchers are increasingly choosing to live in the suburbs, according to a new report from The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

The report showed that as jobs moved to the suburbs, people followed.

In the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman region, that was no exception.

The region’s percentage of vouchers used in suburbs increased 3 percent from 2000 to 2008, from 43 to 46 percent.

Nearby Akron saw the largest percentage increase of any metro area. The percentage of vouchers used in suburbs ballooned from 18.2 percent to 37.5, a 19.3 percent jump.

Nearly half of all HCV recipients lived in suburban areas in 2008.

The Suburbanization of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients analyzed data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the American Community Survey to show how the trend is quickly proceeding in many of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas.