How Housing Instability Affects Children

Where we live and the quality of our homes shapes every aspect of our lives—including the schools we can attend, our access to health care, and our economic opportunities. Today’s housing crisis and the resulting instability threatens the well-being of millions of children across the country.

The following research shows the ramifications unstable housing can have on children’s health, educational outcomes, and future economic prosperity.

Housing instability negatively affects childhood health

• Air quality has as large of an effect on preterm birth disparities as more commonly recognized factors like maternal age and educational attainment.
• Children who experienced homelessness as infants were more likely to have health problems, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits than children in poverty who did not experience infant homelessness.
• Households with children are among those most likely to experience housing energy insecurity, which affects children’s healthy living environment.
• Of a small sample of children ages 2 to 17, those living in public housing had better mental health outcomes than those on a waiting list.
• Poorer-quality housing is associated with higher baseline levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression from elementary school through young adulthood.
• Being behind on rent, having a history of multiple moves, or having a history of homelessness is associated with adverse health outcomes for children in renter households with low-incomes.

Housing instability negatively affects children’s educational outcomes

• A study of nearly 5,000 children found that children whose families had experienced an eviction in middle childhood had significantly lower cognitive assessment scores compared with similar children whose families did not experience an eviction. The difference in scores was equivalent to as much as a full year of schooling.
• Residential moves accompanied by school moves are particularly harmful to academic performance for elementary and middle school students.
• One study found that students with concurrent intradistrict moves had lower reading achievement scores.
• In Florida, absenteeism is more common among schoolchildren experiencing homelessness. They also receive lower passing rates for English language arts, math, and science exams than their housed counterparts.

Housing quality can harm student outcomes and economic prosperity

• Children with greater exposure to pollutants are more likely to use academic support services than children with lower levels of exposure.
• This study found that when controlling for school, family, and home characteristics, crowding of more than 2.5 people per bedroom was associated with a decrease in language and mathematics scores for sixth-grade students.
• Decreased lead exposure is associated with improved third-grade test scores.
• A study found that living in poor-quality housing is associated with lower kindergarten readiness scores.
• Household crowding is strongly and independently associated with a child’s socioeconomic status. This study found children who live in a crowded household at any time before age 19 are less likely to graduate from high school and have lower educational attainment at age 25.

Housing stability improves economic outcomes for children

• A study of more than 7,300 children randomly assigned participating families to three groups: an experimental voucher group, a Section 8 voucher group, and a control group with no intervention. It found that children younger than 13 assigned to the experimental voucher group increased their individual earnings in adulthood by $3,477 and total pretax lifetime earnings by $302,000. They were also more likely to attend college, live in lower-poverty neighborhoods as adults, and were less likely to be single mothers (for the girls in the sample).
• This study found that middle childhood (ages 6–10) is a sensitive age for moving. At that age, any move is associated with lower earnings, fewer work hours, and less educational attainment later in life.
• Spending additional time in public housing and receiving housing choice voucher supports between ages 13 and 18 (compared with unsubsidized housing) leads to increased earnings at age 26.
• Children in households with low incomes who received rental subsidies for more of their childhood experienced long-term economic benefits, like higher annual earnings by their midtwenties.