Who applies for Housing Choice Vouchers? Evidence from Los Angeles

The Housing Choice Voucher program is the largest subsidy program in the United States, assisting over 2.3 million households nationally. While extensive research has studied housing vouchers, existing studies focus on only part of the administrative process—after households are offered a voucher. Leveraging data from a door-to-door survey in Los Angeles, this study analyzes the factors that shape whether households apply for the program. We find that households who have experienced more financial and housing challenges were more likely to apply to the voucher lottery. Additionally, Hispanic residents were significantly less likely to apply for the voucher lottery even after controlling for language barriers, socioeconomic characteristics, and housing-related experiences. We also find that the most common reason for not applying was their lack of information, potentially due to weak social connections. Altogether, this research shows how the voucher application process can effectively constitute a first-order screening into the voucher program, which has important implications for studying downstream impacts of the program.