Residential Displacement: Extent, Nature, and Effects

Abstract

Each year, a small fraction of families move for reasons beyond their control. Among these involuntary movers are the displaced: those who are forced to move due to conditions affecting their dwelling or its immediate environments that make continued occupancy impossible. The average annual rate of displacement moves out of urban areas during the 1970s is estimated at roughly 1.0 percent. Families most susceptible to displacement were those with high housing cost burdens, short durations of occupancy, living in or close to the central city of the SMSA, receiving welfare, and headed by persons who are young and have low levels of eduction. Three findings concerning the effects of displacement are most noteworthy. First, the effects of displacement are not pervasive across three sets of outcomes: housing, income, and employment. Second, displacement appears to have some positive effects on material well‐being. Third, where detrimental effects do exist, they do not always support the assumption that the least well‐off suffer the greatest decline in material well‐being.