Project: THE EFFECTS OF ASSISTED HOUSING ON RESIDENTS' LIFE CHANCES  

Sponsors: The Ford Foundation
Status: Complete
IPS Staff: Sandra J. Newman, Joseph Harkness, Scott Holupka, David Kantor, Amy Robie, and Laura Vernon-Russell

Purpose and Approach
This project examines the effects of living in public housing or privately-owned assisted housing on the long-term outcomes of young children, youth, and adults. To date, we have found that living in public housing and private owned, publicly assisted housing during the first three years of life is associated with better scores on reading tests in later childhood, and living in private assisted housing is related to a significant reduction in behavioral and psychological problems for girls. For youth, living in public housing between ages 10 and 16 is associated with increased employment
rates and earnings, and reduced welfare dependence in early adulthood. In the current project year, we focused on economic outcomes of adults. Data are from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Assisted Housing Database for the period 1970-1995, and the sample is restricted to women with children. We examined the change in women’s economic status between the two years before they moved into assisted housing and the six years after, compared with a similar group of unassisted women observed over the same period. The comparison group is identified using propensity score matching.

Results
We find no evidence that moving into private assisted housing is associated with a reduction in women’s labor force participation, work hours, of earnings. Moving into public housing is associated with a short-term reduction in work hours relative to modestly increasing work hours in the comparison group (p=.06). It is also associated with flat earnings in the two years after the move relative to increasing earnings in the comparison group (p=.04), with a narrowing and statistically insignificant difference between the groups over time. Moving into public housing is not associated with a statistically significant change in labor force participation. For those moving into either public housing or private assisted housing, the one change that is sustained over time is the increased reliance on welfare associated with becoming a housing assistance recipient.

Publications
Harkness, J. and S. Newman (2006). “The Long-Term Effects of Housing Assistance on Work and Welfare.” Paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Research Conference, October, Madison, WI.
(This paper is currently being revised for publication and includes co-author S. Holupka.)