Harmonizing Systems to Reduce Eviction and Homelessness: An Environmental Scan of Innovative School-Housing Partnerships

• In Event: Leveraging Housing Policy to Reduce Educational Inequality

Abstract

Due to high and rising housing costs, record-high shares of families are vulnerable to displacement, formal eviction, and homelessness. Residential mobility and homelessness are harmful to children’s wellbeing and educational outcomes, both in the short and long term. Schools with high rates of student mobility and absenteeism, associated with housing problems, face deeper challenges when engaging in sustained, impactful work with the students and families that they serve.

 

Despite growing national awareness of these issues, education researchers and policymakers have largely ignored eviction and housing insecurity, focusing more often on families who are already experiencing homelessness, rather than eviction prevention. Yet, in recent years, some policymakers and community members across the U.S. have developed innovative programs to engage in cross-sector work to stabilize and support families, children, and schools. The theory of action undergirding these partnerships is that the work of each sector can strengthen and amplify the work of the other. 

In this paper, we document and to identify promising practices to improve collaboration between the housing and education sectors towards eviction prevention for housing insecure families with children. We conducted an environmental scan, outlining the range of policies local, state, and federal agencies are adopting to support families and providing possible paths for policymakers and school leaders to take. 

Specifically, we identify innovative school-housing partnerships focused on housing assistance, including emergency rental assistance, short- and long-term housing provision, and housing counselors or case management; policy and legal protections, including school-year eviction moratoria and legal aid; and data-sharing policies, including sharing eviction data with schools to better aid and respond to the needs of families. 

Our work has several findings for policy and research. In particular, we encourage more programs and policies to target families before they experience homelessness. Most existing policy efforts, programming, and research at the intersection of housing and schools, and thus many of the policies identified in our scan, focus on students who are already experiencing homelessness. Some of these include McKinney Vento services, rapid rehousing, tutoring, or other supports to students experiencing homelessness. By also showcasing innovative policies that go beyond such supports, we want to push the field to move more upstream, focusing on homelessness prevention, eviction prevention, and affordable housing provision.

Author

• Tara Blagg, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author