Relocation Counselling and Supportive Services as Tools to Prevent Negative Spillover Effects: A Review

This paper aims to review the literature on negative neighbourhood spillovers connected to four <italic>voluntary</italic> housing mobility programs: Gautreaux 1 and Gautreaux 2 (Chicago), the Moving to Opportunity Fair Housing Demonstration (five cities) and the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program. Although these four programs involve voluntary moves, a great deal may be learned from them because of (1) efforts to forestall community opposition and (2) special counselling and supportive programs provided to ease adjustment into destination neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the available research often falls short in providing evidence for or against negative spillover effects. Nevertheless, our review indicates that screening out multi-problem families, limiting the number of housing voucher families moving into particular neighbourhoods and providing both pre- and post-relocation counselling to program participants can minimize the risk of negative neighbourhood spillovers.