Government Assistance Protects Low-Income Families from Eviction

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lundberg, Ian; Gold, Sarah L.; Donnelly, Louis; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; McLanahan, Sara S.
• 署名单位: Princeton University; Princeton University; Princeton University; Princeton University; Columbia University; Columbia University; Columbia University Teachers College; Columbia University; Princeton University; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1520-7181
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.22234
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 107-+
• 关键词: matching estimators; housing assistance; neighborhoods; CHILDREN; sample

摘要

A lack of affordable housing is a pressing issue for many low-income American families and can lead to eviction from their homes. Housing assistance programs to address this problem include public housing and other assistance, including vouchers, through which a government agency offsets the cost of private market housing. This paper assesses whether the receipt of either category of assistance reduces the probability that a family will be evicted from their home in the subsequent six years. Because no randomized trial has assessed these effects, we use observational data and formalize the conditions under which a causal interpretation is warranted. Families living in public housing experience less eviction conditional on pre-treatment variables. We argue that this evidence points toward a causal conclusion that assistance, particularly public housing, protects families from eviction. (C) 2020 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management