There
are numerous studies that came out of the Moving to Opportunity
experiment that was done in the mid 1990s. Over 4200 families, living
in public housing in five cities were given two opportunities to move.
Nearly all the participants were single mothers with teenagers. Two thirds were black and one third were Hispanic.
One experimental group was limited to moves to other fairly poor neighborhoods but not public housing; the second moved to significantly better neighborhoods. A third control group stayed behind and was also followed for five years.
The best study shows that there was
a small effect of moving out of the black ghetto, but not much. One group didn't benefit, teenage boys.
When moved to better neighborhoods, teenage boys from public housing
acted worse than their peers who stayed behind. Girls did a little
better in school and behavior. Mothers made modest improvements in
their earning ability and big improvements in their happiness.
In general, getting out of public housing and bad, crime ridden, neighborhoods is positive, but it has little impact on reducing the factors associated with poverty, like work skills. Very little impact other than what individuals can achieve on their own if they want to.