RFA-CE-24-034 :Evaluating the impact of PHLHousing+ on child welfare involvement

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of the proposal is to test whether programs that improve housing security reduce exposure to violence for low-income renters who, in the city of Philadelphia, are disproportionately Black. This objective will be met using data from the PHLHousing+ Evaluation – a housing-focused guaranteed income experiment designed as a randomized controlled trial. The PHLHousing+ Evaluation comprises three groups, all of whom earn below 50% area median income and have at least one child under the age of 16 years living at home: 300 households who receive monthly cash payments in lieu of a rental voucher (Cash group), 300 households in receipt of a rental voucher (Voucher group), and 789 households on the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) waitlist who have not, to date, been offered a rental voucher because of their randomized position on the waitlist (Control group). Of the 1,389 households in the study, 83% are headed by single women and 83% are Black. There are 2,678 children in the sample, ranging in age from 1 to 16 years (median = 10, IQR = 5-15). At enrollment, monthly cash payments ranged from $89 to $2079, with a median payment of $881; payments varied based on household income, family size, and fair market rent. Households in the Cash group will receive monthly payments for 2.5 years. All three groups are surveyed every six months for three years via an online survey; two waves of surveys have already been conducted, with the first deployed in August 2022. Surveys include questions about housing security, quality, and mobility, neighborhood quality, financial security and spending, and parent and child well-being. We propose to link household-level data on group membership with data on investigated and substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect from Philadelphia's Department of Human Services (DHS), Philadelphia county's child protective service. We also propose to link households' residential addresses with publicly-available block-level data from the Philadelphia Police Department on violent crime and fatal and nonfatal shootings. Aim 1 is to test whether randomization to the Cash or Voucher (versus Control) arms of the study reduces rates of substantiated child abuse and neglect and acceptance for formal child welfare services. Aim 2 is to test whether randomization to the Cash arm of the study (versus Voucher or Control) is associated with lower rates of exposure to gun violence and violent and nonviolent crime. Aim 3 is to test whether randomization to the Cash or Voucher (versus Control) arms of the study promotes equity by reducing oversurveillance of families in poverty. The proposed research is consistent with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's strategic priority to evaluate the effectiveness of policies designed to enhance the economic environment to reduce multiple forms of violence. Study findings will have immediate implications for the City of Philadelphia's model for providing housing assistance, inform efforts to establish similar programs in other cities as well as federal approaches to rental assistance, and provide actionable information about targeting housing security in efforts to prevent exposure to violence.