“I Don’t Fit the Stereotypes”: Housing Choice Voucher Recipients and the Navigation of a Voucher Identity

This article examines how Housing Choice Voucher Program participants encounter and negotiate stigma during the housing search. The stigmatization of government subsidies is well documented, but such accounts rarely observe the process by which such stigma is revealed and resisted. We use prospective, longitudinal, in-depth interviews with 47 low-income individuals as they attempted to use a voucher in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Respondents initially voiced optimism about the promise of vouchers—yet, in subsequent interviews, described repeated denials on the housing market leading to disappointment, frustration, and discouragement. After rejection by landlords, most respondents rhetorically distanced themselves from other voucher holders. They engaged narratives of exceptionalism, presenting themselves as responsible and deserving in contrast to voucher holders as a class. The study reveals dynamics of policy uptake and its intersections with identity formation. This phenomenon curtailed solidarity among voucher holders, thus forestalling potential policy feedback, including collective action.