By Huiyun Kim, Sarah A. Burgard, and Kristin S. Seefeldt, Housing Matters, April 8, 2020
During and following economic recessions, labor market instability leads to housing instability as income shocks and increased volatility in income cause missed rent payments. To avoid the cascade of negative outcomes associated with housing instability, policymakers must understand what kinds of support can help families remain stably housed. In this study, researchers examined the association between the receipt of housing assistance and changes in housing insecurity among renters in the Detroit metropolitan area in the wake of the Great Recession.
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the first two waves of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study (MRRS), a stratified, random sample of working-age adults drawn from the general population of the three counties (Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne) surrounding Detroit. Drawing from interviews conducted between October 2009 and April 2010 and again between April and August of 2011, researchers analyzed the responses of the 400 respondents who identified as renters, classifying respondents as housing insecure if they reported any moves for cost reasons; completed foreclosure; experienced eviction, homelessness, or doubling up with others to share expenses; or were behind on rent. To examine the effects of housing assistance on housing insecurity, researchers compared housing security outcomes between households that received housing assistance (in the form of housing choice vouchers or place-based rental assistance), households that were income eligible but did not receive any assistance, and households that were not income eligible and did not receive any assistance. Researchers then ran two predictive models to assess whether the receipt of housing assistance influenced the likelihood of housing insecurity at the time of the second interview. To isolate the effects of receiving housing assistance, researchers controlled for income, receipt of other forms of cash assistance, marital status, number of children, age, education level, race, and county of residence. The findings suggest that households that received housing assistance had a significantly lower risk of housing insecurity than their income-eligible counterparts over the 17-month period of the study.
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