Displaceability under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD): theory, evidence, and future directions

This policy review examines the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, the largest public housing redevelopment program in the U.S. in recent decades, to ask whether a program designed to prevent displacement may still generate what Yiftachel calls displaceability: a condition rooted in asymmetric power relations between residents and the actors shaping the terms of staying, leaving residents vulnerable to displacement even when residents have a legitimate right to remain. The review theorizes how displaceability may arise, whether through the income-based rent formula, market pressures that reinvestment brings, or non-public partners’ discretionary enforcement of resident protections. This review finds no evidence of large-scale displacement, suggesting that displaceability has not translated into displacement in RAD’s short history. It nonetheless identifies several forms of displaceability, including miscommunication around conversion and signs of neighborhood change around converted properties, which warrant continued monitoring as RAD matures. The review concludes with future research directions and calls for stronger accountability, clearer communication, more resident-centered implementation, and evaluation of long-term effects. This review is among the first to examine displaceability in a U.S. federal housing program built around anti-displacement protections and offers implications for international contexts where public or social housing redevelopment proceeds with similar protections.