eople with lower incomes to rent or buy these units and move out of units having an even lower quality. The rising tide occurs as some people move from standard to high quality housing, others move from substandard to standard housing, and the worst housing is taken out of the housing stock (p. 53).
Yet the evidence to support the theory is mixed. The author acknowledges that there "have been very few empirical studies of the rising tide... the data simply do not exist." (p. 56).
In reviewing the impact of subsidized housing, the evidence is also mixed. One study suggests that public housing benefits all low income households, because it reduces demand for low quality private rental units, and the rents for these non-subsidized units fall and become more affordable. WHile another study concludes that subsidized housing causes the quality of housing for low-income households to deteriorate (p. 58).
Although every aspect of the author's analysis made use of conflicting studies, Weicher concluded that it "appears there is a rising tide, or filtering process," under which new housing built for the
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