Choosing a Household: How Parents Navigate the Private Housing Safety Net

• In Event: 2266 - Family Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 20. Social Support, Extended Kin, and Social Capital

Abstract

A substantial literature examines what affects whether individuals have supportive social ties who are able and willing to lend instrumental assistance. However, the transmission of social support also requires decisions on the part of recipients, and we know less about how support-seekers understand and evaluate the potential support available to them. This study explores this question using data from 93 in-depth interviews with 33 parents with young children who doubled up in someone else’s home. I find that parents make active decisions about which source of housing support to mobilize by evaluating three main aspects of potential support: the quality of the support itself, the social relationships involved in receiving support, and the conditions attached to the support. By identifying how doubled-up parents understand and evaluate their housing support options, this study provides insight into instrumental support activation decisions and complicates current conceptions of support availability. Additionally, this study identifies difficult trade-offs faced by parents using the private housing safety net and helps explain why parents do not always double up with the householder they perceive will provide the “best” housing for their family.

Author

• Hope Harvey, Cornell University