Housing strategies to strengthen families
Housing strategies can reduce residential instability, improve housing quality, and strengthen housing affordability.
Children who experience stable housing are more likely to experience positive economic mobility outcomes at every life stage. Adults in stable housing see better health and employment outcomes.
How does housing impact family well-being?
- Residential stability supports employment stability. 1
Adults experiencing a residential crisis are more likely to be late for or miss work. Forced relocations are correlated with higher levels of job loss.
- Residential stability contributes to children’s healthy development. 2
Children experiencing residential instability demonstrate worse academic and social outcomes than their residentially stable peers, such as lower vocabulary skills, grade retention, increased high school drop-out rates, and lower adult educational attainment.
- Children thrive in stable, predictable household environments. 3
Frequent or abrupt moves often produce chaotic household environments. For children, household chaos has been found to predict poor attention skills, learning difficulties, difficulty with delayed gratification, less receptive vocabulary skills, lower IQ scores, and lower ability to process social cues.
- Stable schooling and childcare arrangements produce better outcomes for children. 4
Multiple forced moves often cause children and families to change schools or childcare providers, which can hamper child development, academic progress, and social skills.
- Safe, healthy housing is positively associated with children’s development and family well-being. 5
Insufficient home insulation, the absence of hot water, pest infestation, mold, inadequate ventilation, and other environmental factors in homes are associated with greater incidences of infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, injuries, poor nutrition, mental disorders, and cognitive development issues.
- Moving to better housing or a higher opportunity neighborhood improves lifetime outcomes for children. 6
Lower-income children are more likely to experience upward economic mobility if they grow up in areas with less concentrated poverty, better schools, a large share of two-parent families, and lower crime rates. The earlier children move to a higher opportunity neighborhood, the stronger the positive effects.
Categories of successful interventions
- Eviction, displacement, and homelessness prevention: Programs or services that help at-risk tenants avoid eviction and displacement
- Home ownership programs: Programs that help lower-income renters become homeowners or help low-income homeowners remain in their homes
- Housing quality programs: Services that improve and ensure housing quality and safety
Evidence-based interventions
Intervention | Type | Category | Evidence Level |
---|---|---|---|
Community land trusts | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |
Debt advice for tenants with unpaid rents | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |
Healthy home environment assessments | Strategy |
|
Proven (highest tier) |
Housing First | Program |
|
Proven (highest tier) |
Housing rehabilitation loan and grant programs | Strategy |
|
Proven (highest tier) |
Land banking | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |
Lead paint abatement programs | Strategy |
|
Proven (highest tier) |
Legal support for tenants facing eviction | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |
Rapid re-housing initiatives | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |
Service-enriched housing | Strategy |
|
Strong (second-highest tier) |