Moving to Opportunity : The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

If "bad" neighborhoods are truly bad for children and families, especially the minority poor, can moving to better neighborhoods lead them to better lives? Federal policymakers and planners thought so, on both counts, and in 1994, they launched Moving to Opportunity. The $80 million social experiment enrolled nearly 5,000 very low-income, mostly black and Hispanic families, many of them on welfare, who were living in public housing in the inner-city neighborhoods of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Moving to Opportunity provides a unique account of one of the largest housing experiments in history and its effects on lives of the children and families who participated. MTO is a uniquely American experiment, and this book brings home its lessons for all who share a deep concern for opportunity and inequality in a changing nation.