Disarming the great affordable housing debate

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Wednesday, columnist Thomas Edsall opened with a pair of provocative questions: If its goal is to move up the ladder, where should a poor family live? Should federal dollars go toward affordable housing within high-poverty neighborhoods, or should subsidies be used to move residents of impoverished communities into more upscale—and more resistant—sections of cities and suburbs with better schools and job opportunities? Edsall treats these questions as interrelated. 

We, however, see them as distinct: the first question is critical, but the second question presents a false (and highly counterproductive) dichotomy. (author abstract)