Understanding the Role of Housing Policy in Life-Course Health

Abstract

There is a significant crisis in the availability of affordable and stable rental housing in the United States. The vast majority of low-income rental households spend more than 30% of income on rent, which can reduce available funds for food and health care. United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance programs—public housing and vouchers—are among the few available sources of affordable housing for poor families, but the programs are underfunded. This chapter first traces recent evidence for the effects of HUD rental assistance programs on health and well-being outcomes for children and adults. Recent studies using survey-administrative linkages suggest that living in public housing leads to improvements in mental health for both children and adults, while also reducing the risk of severe asthma symptoms in children. Rental assistance also leads to reductions in lead exposure among children, increases in health insurance coverage, reductions in unmet health care need, and increases in physical activity among adults. Next, the chapter considers the implications of these findings from a life-course health perspective. Rental assistance can have health benefits at many life stages but might also break the link between low socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood. Health benefits in childhood could promote socioeconomic mobility for low-income children and reduce the intergenerational transmission of inequality. While investment in affordable and stable rental housing is likely to improve health across the life course, policy makers should recognize that these programs are currently severely underfunded at the federal level.