Evaluating Local Studies of Barriers to Fair Housing

Analyses of Impediments to Fair Housing (AIs) are Federally-mandated studies intended to develop an agenda for remedies to structural and operational barriers to fair housing in the U.S. There are few existing evaluations of AI quality, and there is little understanding of how AI results influence fair housing policy. We have developed an evaluation instrument that determines the extent to which AIs meet statutory requirements and use appropriate data and methods. We have applied this instrument to a small national sample of AIs using multiple readers. We find that while there is broad agreement across readers as to whether specific questions are addressed or not, there is considerable variation regarding more detailed measurements of AI quality. Nevertheless, the evaluation instrument appears to provide reliable measures of AI quality across topic areas. This research will enable jurisdictions that perform AIs to develop well-defined quality metrics and to address unique local characteristics.