Welcome to Housing Is, a hub for generating effective programs and sharing innovative ideas.

Sign Up or Sign In
 

THRIVE FROM THE START

Every infant and toddler deserves a safe, stable, and nurturing start in life. That’s why Housing Is has joined forces with  Prevent Child Abuse America, SchoolHouse Connection, and ZERO TO THREE to launch Thrive From The Start—a cross-sector effort dedicated to addressing homelessness among infants, toddlers, and expectant parents. Visit thrivefromthestart.org to learn more and explore how you can be a part of the solution. 

Learn More
 

Housing Is Working Group 2024-2025 Calendar

Join the Housing Is Working Group to discuss special topics related to cross-sector initiatives and programmatic considerations particularly focused on the intersections of housing, health, and education.

This year’s public webinars cover topics such as child welfare and housing, leveraging Medicaid resources for housing services, out-of-school time, and digital connectivity in a post-ACP world. 

View Calendar
 
0
0
0
0
Video
Community:
May 24, 2019
Recent research shows that place matters in economic mobility. Strong neighborhoods and community resources can have long-term impact on educational achievements and earnings. Building off of this research, David Williams from Opportunity Insights will discuss how PHAs are collaborating with researchers to develop and evaluate effective interventions for families with young children.

Authored by: Housing Is, CLPHA
Topics: CLPHA, Mobility, Partnerships, Place-based, Research
Shared by Housing Is on May 24, 2019
0
0
0
0
Research
Community:
Mar 28, 2019
Federal safety net programs are intended to protect the most vulnerable Americans—such as the elderly, people with severe disabilities and young children. Housing assistance plays a critical role in the safety net, providing decent, safe, and affordable housing for millions of extremely low-income and vulnerable families—though, because it is not an entitlement like other federal safety net programs, the assistance available falls far short of the need. Housing subsidies free families to spend on other essentials like healthy food, education, and health care.

Authored by: Susan J. Popkin for Journal of Housing & Community Development
Topics: Asset building, Dual-generation, Education, Housing, Mental health, Mobility, Partnerships, Research, Workforce development
Shared by Housing Is on Apr 2, 2019
0
0
0
0
Podcast
Community:
One out of every 10 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 is neither working nor in school. These “disconnected” young people face an uphill battle finding work and are at risk of economic hardship well into adulthood. Although there are many programs that aim to reconnect young people to education and employment, findings from evaluations of these programs have been mixed. The evidence base has grown substantially in the past several months, though, as studies of three pro­grams — YouthBuild, Year Up, and New York City’s Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) — have released new findings. MDRC’s Dan Bloom and Cynthia Miller recently wrote a brief that discusses findings from the new studies and their implications for youth programs.

Authored by: MDRC
Topics: Asset building, Low-income, Mobility, Research, Workforce development, Youth
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 8, 2019
0
0
0
0
Publication
Community:
Safe, affordable housing enables low-income people to climb up the income ladder and achieve the American Dream.

Authored by: Opportunity Starts at Home
Topics: Asset building, Housing, Mobility, Partnerships, Research
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Jan 18, 2019
0
0
0
0
Report
Community:
Sep 12, 2017
Broadband, especially wireline broadband in American homes, is the essential infrastructure for unlocking the internet’s economic benefits. However, broadband infrastructure is far from ubiquitous, both in terms of where it operates and who subscribes to it, and those deficits are not shared evenly across the country. As such, policymakers must understand how the national digital divide varies depending on the place.

Authored by: Adie Tomer, Elizabeth Kneebone, and Ranjitha Shivaram for The Brookings Institution
Topics: Broadband, Education, Low-income, Mobility, Research
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Dec 3, 2018
0
0
0
0
Research
Community:
Nov 1, 2018
We undertake the first rigorous evaluation of financial coaching using a randomized controlled trial at two sites. We estimate both treatment uptake and treatment outcomes, including intent to treat estimates and complier average causal effects.

Authored by: Brett Theodos, Christina Plerhoples Stacy, and Rebecca Daniels for The Urban Institute
Topics: Asset building, Low-income, Mobility, Research
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Nov 7, 2018

Client led coaching: A random assignment evaluation of the impacts of financial coaching programs

Research
Nov 1, 2018
Brett Theodos, Christina Plerhoples Stacy, and Rebecca Daniels for The Urban Institute
We undertake the first rigorous evaluation of financial coaching using a randomized controlled trial at two sites. We estimate both treatment uptake and treatment outcomes, including intent to treat estimates and complier average causal effects.
0
1
1
0
Report
Community:
May 1, 2018
Our initial report—which followed participants around the country over three years—found, among other things, that Year Up increased participants’ average quarterly earnings by more than 50 percent. These are the largest gains in earnings measured to date in random assignment studies of workforce training programs for youth and adults.

Authored by: David Fein and Jill Hamadyk for Abt Associates
Topics: Asset building, Education, Low-income, Mobility, Post-secondary, Research, Workforce development, Youth
Shared by Housing Is on Aug 16, 2018

Bridging the Opportunity Divide for Low-Income Youth: Implementation and Early Impacts of the Year Up Program

Report
May 1, 2018
David Fein and Jill Hamadyk for Abt Associates
Our initial report—which followed participants around the country over three years—found, among other things, that Year Up increased participants’ average quarterly earnings by more than 50 percent.
0
0
0
0
Research
Community:
Aug 9, 2018
For almost two decades now, cities around the country have been demolishing traditional public housing and relocating residents to subsidized private market rental housing. In this paper, we examine sense of place, consisting of both community and place attachment, among a sample of Atlanta public housing residents prior to relocation.

Authored by:
Topics: Asset building, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Mental health, Mobility, Research, South, Stability
Shared by Housing Is on Aug 9, 2018
0
0
0
0
Research
Community:
Jul 23, 2018
The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment offered randomly selected families living in highpoverty housing projects housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods. We present new evidence on the impacts of MTO on children’s long-term outcomes using administrative data from tax returns. We find that moving to a lower-poverty neighborhood significantly improves college attendance rates and earnings for children who were young (below age 13) when their families moved. These children also live in better neighborhoods themselves as adults and are less likely to become single parents. The treatment effects are substantial: children whose families take up an experimental voucher to move to a lower-poverty area when they are less than 13 years old have an annual income that is $3,477 (31%) higher on average relative to a mean of $11,270 in the control group in their mid-twenties

Authored by:
Topics: Child welfare, Cost effectiveness, Dual-generation, Education, Housing, Low-income, Mobility, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Jul 23, 2018

The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

Research
Jul 23, 2018
The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment offered randomly selected families living in highpoverty housing projects housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods. We present new evidence on the impacts of MTO on children’s long-term outcomes using administrative data from tax returns.
0
0
0
0
Research
Community:
Jul 19, 2018
The link between federal housing policy and public health has been understood since the nineteenth century, when housing activists first sought to abolish slums and create healthful environments. This article describes how the Obama administration—building on these efforts and those that followed, including the Great Society programs of President Lyndon Johnson—has adopted a cross-sector approach that takes health considerations into account when formulating housing and community development policy. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development fully embraces this “health in all policies” approach. Nonetheless, the administration’s strategy faces challenges, including fiscal and political ones. Some of these challenges may be overcome by conducting quality research on how housing and community development policies affect health outcomes, and by developing a federal budget strategy that takes into account how investments in one sector contribute to cost savings in another.

Authored by:
Topics: Affordable Care Act, Community development, Disabilities, Health, Healthy homes, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Mobility, Partnerships, Place-based, RAD, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Jul 19, 2018
0
0
0
0
Publication
Community:
Jul 12, 2018
With the new administration and Congress, policymakers have an opportunity to forge an enduring bipartisan consensus on affordable rental housing. There is more agreement between the two political parties than one might think: Strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, expanding the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program, continuing efforts to reduce homelessness, infusing real choice into the housing voucher program by enabling greater mobility, expanding self-sufficiency and asset-building incentives, and reducing regulatory barriers to increase affordable housing production—all have bipartisan buy-in. The question is whether lawmakers can find the political will to devote to the effort and the resources to make significant progress. This brief lays out the possible parameters of such a consensus plan.

Authored by:
Topics: Dual-generation, Funding, Homelessness, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Mobility, RAD, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Jul 12, 2018
0
0
0
0
Report
Community:
Nov 1, 2017
Why do some neighborhoods appear able to launch effective local improvement initiatives, while others are more hampered by fragmentation and mistrust? Why can some communities mobilize diverse constituencies to influence public policy, while others cannot? Answers to these questions may be found in the specific patterns of collaboration that form among community organizations, and between these groups, schools, public agencies, and elected officials, according to MDRC, a preeminent social-policy research organization.

Authored by: MDRC
Topics: Asset building, Child welfare, Community development, Data sharing, Dual-generation, Education, Family engagement, Funding, Health, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Metrics, Midwest, Mobility, Out-of-school time, Partnerships, Place-based, Preventative care, Research, Safety, Stability, Workforce development, Youth
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Jun 29, 2018

Network Effectiveness in Community Collaborations: Learning from the Chicago Community Networks Study

Report
Nov 1, 2017
MDRC
Why do some neighborhoods appear able to launch effective local improvement initiatives, while others are more hampered by fragmentation and mistrust? Why can some communities mobilize diverse constituencies to influence public policy, while others cannot?