Housing Assistance Use Patterns and Influence on Family Outcomes: Family Options Study 12-Year Followup Findings

• In Event: Long-term Effects of Housing Vouchers: Findings from the Family Options Study 12-Year Followup

Abstract

The Family Options Study used an experimental research design to develop evidence about the relative effects of alternative housing and services interventions for families who experience homelessness. A total of 2,282 families with children enrolled in the study from 2010 to 2012. Families had to have spent at least 7 days in emergency shelter and included at least one child aged 15 or younger. The study collected detailed data on the receipt of HUD-administered long-term rent subsidies (housing choice vouchers, public housing, project-based assistance) over a 12-year followup period. Longitudinal research completed in 2025 examines 12-year outcomes for the parents and children in the study families. Based on non-experimental analyses, this paper examines the use of long-term rental assistance by families who have experienced homelessness.

This paper will present the results of three sets of non-experimental analyses of long-term rent subsidy use. The first set of analyses will examine the extent to which the effects of using long-term rent subsidies are associated with the contemporaneous use of the rental assistance, or with cumulative use of the assistance over time. For many outcomes, such as housing affordability, one might expect that current use of the intervention would drive intervention effects. For other outcomes, however, cumulative use may be more important. For example, favorable economic well-being and mental health outcomes later in life could stem from cumulative effects of reduced exposure to housing instability. For children, prior research also indicates that differences in cumulative exposure may help account for differences in earnings and incarceration outcomes in young adulthood (Pollakowski et al., 2022).  

The second set of analyses will explore patterns of families entering and exiting long-term rent subsidies over time. These analyses will help identify pathways into and out of long-term rent subsidy use (time to initial use, characteristics correlated with use and duration, type of subsidy, changes in family circumstances correlated with program exit) over time by families who have experienced homelessness.

The third set of analyses will examine families who exited long-term rental assistance to better understand how earnings (based on National Directory of New Hires administrative earnings records) vary around exits from long-term rental assistance. Taken together, these analyses will help us better understand how families who experience homelessness make use of long-term rental subsidies over time and how use is associated with economic and well-being outcomes.

Author

• Daniel B Gubits, Abt Global
  Presenting Author