The Effect of Assisted Housing on Residential and School Instability in Washington State

• In Event: 25.033 - A Multisite Study of Assisted Housing Programs and Educational Well-Being Using Integrated Data Systems

Abstract

A major concern of both housing and education policymakers is the repercussion of instability, but in the home and school environments, on the overall well-being of children. Each government entity takes direct steps to reduce the threat of instability on children’s outcomes – permanent housing programs and the McKinney-Vento legislation to combat school mobility among transient populations. The Washington State team was able to investigate whether assisted housing programs in particular have been effective at reducing multiple forms of instability for children—residential moves, homelessness, and school moves.

At Washington State, we expanded on the basic model by integrating education and public housing data with statewide, multi-agency social and health service records. In the base model using education and housing data alone, the available matching variables were limited to gender, race, special education status, English language learner status, and free or reduced price lunch eligibility. With integrated social service data, we could include other important baseline factors in the matching process, such as participation in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), homelessness, chronic illness, and householder wages. The rich social service data used in Washington State’s propensity score match allowed for a more refined identification of a non-assisted housing comparison group. Estimating effects from both the limited and expanded propensity score matched datasets allowed us to demonstrate the value of adding the social service variables to our propensity score models.

Using the IDS data to create propensity score matched cohorts of third and seventh grade students, we examined the impact of assisted housing on the likelihood of experiencing a residential move, a school move, or a homeless episode in the one- to five-year follow-up period. Using this expanded set of social service variables in the propensity score model, we found that entering into assisted housing resulted in large reductions in the odds of homelessness and residential moves in the follow-up period for at least one of the two grade-based cohorts. A similar trend was noted for school moves, although the effect size was smaller than for residential instability. Findings will be unpacked in the presentation by specific housing program types where differences were found. These results demonstrate that assisted housing programs, on average, are successfully creating a more stable home and school environment for children in Washington State.

Authors

• Deleena Patton, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services

• Jim Mayfield, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services