I think that the Section 8 Housing Vouchers help to break up high poverty neighborhoods where "poor people living in these neighborhoods are often both spatially and socially isolated from mainstream society". By giving lower income families the ability to move out of "the projects" and high crime areas into housing that is more suitable for raising a family these families will have a better chance of staying off of welfare and breaking the cycle of poverty. It's encouraging to see that the major housing projects in Atlanta will be closing and most of the former residents were able to take advantage of the housing vouchers and move into more racially mixed neighborhoods. Housing subsidies are definitely a help in lifting people out of poverty however they alone are not adequate as only "1/3 of eligible families gets assistance". I think President Obama's plan to "broaden access to affordable housing" will help in bolstering those people who would otherwise be living in deplorable conditions in housing projects to have access to communities that are safer.
It is disheartening to read the information in the Center for Housing Policy report regarding the Atlanta metro area. This report is outdated, however I would think that with the current economic crisis that besets us the percentage of working families with critical housing needs is steadily increasing. I did hear on NPR the other day that the the number of people utilizing Fulton county homeless shelters is on the rise due to the economy and that the required hourly wage to afford housing in Atlanta including utilities was north of $19/hr. This brings us back to the issue of earning a "living wage".
I agree with you that efforts to eradicate public housing are a win-win for low income families, as well as municipal coffers, because administering the program is far cheaper than maintaining public housing. The cost of increased crime and police presence needs to be considered also for public housing, which tend to be hotbeds for crime concentrations.
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