Since the early 1980s, an increasing number of initiatives have been introduced to link housing programs and policies with efforts designed to promote family economic self‐sufficiency. This article reviews a set of programs that have worked to manipulate various components of the housing bundle to improve the economic well‐being of acutely poor families. They include programs that modify the characteristics and services available in the local community, alter families’ residential location, provide incentives and opportunities for homeownership, and link the provision of housing subsidies to increasing local capacity for service delivery.

This article suggests that the centrality of housing in fostering or impeding economic mobility makes it a key element in dealing with acute poverty and part of a creative strategy for intervening in the dynamics of poverty. Several important areas need to be taken into account when evaluating current policy; and multiyear evaluations will be necessary to determine the success of these programs.