Measuring the Effects of In-Place Subsidized Housing: A Randomized Experiment for NYC Children and Families

This study uses the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (DHPD) lottery system to identify treatment and control households. The project will provide in-depth examination of the association between residential context and health and further improve and expand upon the design of earlier hosing experiments by:

1) following near-poor families that are better off than those living in public housing, but still disadvantaged because they generally do not qualify for other forms of public assistance;

2) examining the impact of “in-place” subsidized housing with a comparison of mixed-income and exclusively low-income hosing developments; and

3) testing the comparative effects of moving to subsidized housing in a new neighborhood with receipt of subsidized housing in the same neighborhood where the participant currently lives.

Effects on both children and adults will be examined. This project is a collaboration with the NYC DHPD.

Funding Sources: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Contact: Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D.