Income Support Policies and the Rise of Student and Family Homelessness

Abstract

This study investigates whether the generosity and accessibility of publicly provided income support contributes to levels of family homelessness. Using data on student homelessness from most public school districts in the United States, I find that greater access to cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program reduces levels of family homelessness and that the reduction is particularly strong for majority–Black and Native American school districts. The results suggest that the observed decline in access to TANF cash assistance may be an important driver of the rise in family homelessness. Evidence is inconclusive about whether greater access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or greater generosity of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) reduces levels of homelessness.

What Does it Mean to be Homeless? How Definitions Affect Homelessness Policy

“…Some district characteristics, particularly poverty, relate with a larger gap between the share of students homeless by definition, after controlling for other factors. Poverty could do so as it moves persons further down the risk continuum of housing insecurity to doubling-up, but not an emergency shelter stay; living in an emergency shelter or unsheltered may instead be driven by other mechanisms intertwined with poverty such as a sudden broken relationship or job loss combined with lack of social supports (O’Flaherty 2019; Parolin 2021). Further, districts in suburbs or towns, as opposed to rural, as well as with a larger share of their students identifying as Black or Hispanic all had more broad-definition (i.e., doubled-up) students than strict-definition.…”

“…Voluntarily sharing housing means sharing for an alternative reason and generally could independently live in safe, fixed, regular, and adequate housing; two roommates sharing housing to save money, but who are not in poverty, or a young adult living with parents because they prefer being close to family are two examples. Collectively, these groups are the focus of research on doubling-up and sharing housing, particularly in studies of education and sociology exploring the dynamics and stressors of sharing housing (Evans, Philips and Ruffini 2021;Harvey 2020;Parolin 2021). Last, length of sharing housing may determine the determination of homelessness regardless of reason.…”

“…While they found community characteristics to be similar for all homeless and doubled-up students, they did find, compared to non-doubled-up but homeless students, doubled-up students were less likely to be Black, more likely to be Latinx or immigrants, and less likely to exit the district. Second, Parolin (2021) estimated whether publicly provided income support affects levels of homelessness in public school districts but split the sample by type of homelessness. The results suggested considerable variation depending on how homelessness is measured.…”

Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents’ Developmental Expenditures

“…With respect to our finding that the more progressive state investments in income support and health lead to bottom-up equalization driven by increased spending among lower-SES households, it is likely that the absolute size of class gaps in private parental investments would be larger in dollar terms, but unlikely that the magnitude of change in the class gaps would change. Low-SES parents who receive cash and in-kind support from the state should be able to spend more money on nutritious food or child-related housing expenditures, based on the results of prior research (Gregg et al 2006; Parolin 2021). Although high-SES parents have the ability to spend much more, it is unlikely their expenditures on a broader array of items would be altered by progressive state investments, in contrast to the behaviors of low-SES parents.…”

“…By reducing material hardship, parents may be better able to increase their investments in children directly, via the presence and quantity of developmentally appropriate books, toys, and games for children in the home. State income support should also allow low-SES households to increase less direct forms of investment in their children via higher spending on nutritious food, high-quality childcare, and even housing that may provide access to higher-quality schooling (Gregg et al 2006; Parolin 2021).…”