ABSTRACT
In an era of empowerment and movement toward economic opportunity, local housing authorities are developing a range of strategies to provide public housing residents with job training and long-term career options. The goal is to provide residents with the skills necessary to compete in the regional job market, obtain permanent employment, and eventually move into conventional market-rate housing (O'Conner, 1999). This strategy presents a number of issues and problems for social policy analysts interested in research within public housing developments. In particular, this chapter argues that researchers have a direct responsibility to hire, train, and empower public housing residents during the implementation of survey-oriented research projects. This is an important goal in relation to the power of knowledge and community revitalization. The transfer of knowledge through engaging the subject community in a research partnership enriches the field survey process and contributes to local self-determination in relation to public policy. This implies negotiation, power sharing, and developing mutual relationships that inherently influence the design and implementation of social policy research.
