2018 ANNUAL REPORT 15 OPPORTUNITY INTERRUPTING POVERTY As one of the largest housing providers in Washington, helping to house more than 50,000 people each night, KCHA has a unique opportunity to take to scale initiatives that aim to improve life outcomes for our community’s lowest income households. However, housing by itself is not sufficient. People must also have access to educational opportunities, quality health care, and living-wage jobs. For this reason, we view all our housing investments as opportunities, in partnership with other systems, to interrupt or prevent intergenerational cycles of poverty. REMOVING BARRIERS TO GEOGRAPHIC CHOICE Extensive studies have confirmed that a neighborhood can play a key role in determining life outcomes for low-income children. In 2018, KCHA launched the Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) initiative, a multi- year research effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify the most effective strategies for expanding neighborhood choice for extremely low-income families with young children. KCHA is working on the initiative in partnership with Seattle Housing Authority and a national interdisciplinary research team headed by Harvard economist Raj Chetty. Preliminary results are promising and will be released in 2019.