Poster #114 - Coverage and Impacts of the HUD Multifamily Service Coordination Program

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

The Multifamily Service Coordination program is a promising resource for older residents of properties subsidized by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A past survey of properties suggested that the program lengthens resident tenure by increasing resident independence and delaying or preventing unnecessary institutionalization. However, access to housing-based service coordination is limited, with less than half of eligible properties employing this role. Service coordination has received minimal attention by research and advocates due in part to the lack of a single, consistent, reliable administrative indicator which makes it difficult to identify properties that staff this position. This project builds on work utilizing various components of HUD administrative data obtained through a FOIA request to identify the properties that most likely employed a services coordinator and the funding used to support that role. Researchers then obtained individual resident data from HUD to build a novel, multiyear dataset of property and resident characteristics that also included indicators for service coordination. In this paper, researchers use the data to evaluate a relationship between the presence of a service coordinator and resident stability during a period of major disruption, hypothesizing that service coordinators help residents minimize disruption during transitions. This analysis utilizes a difference in differences methodology to compare the experiences of residents living on properties with and without a service coordinator leading up to and during the coronavirus pandemic. Factors like changes in subsidy income are used as key points of variation to observe how residents fared and assess whether impacts were significantly different with a service coordinator present. Results are useful to property managers and community leaders engaged in disaster and emergency planning, including planning related to climate and weather emergencies. Findings also demonstrate to policymakers that service coordinators help residents navigate stochastic events, a purpose above and beyond the narrower goals established for the service coordination program.

Author

• Samara Scheckler, Harvard University
  Presenting Author