Cash assistance drastically reduces tenants’ likelihood of eviction and homelessness, according to an ongoing study of the PHLHousing+ program from Weitzman’s Vincent Reina and Arts & Sciences’ Sara Jaffee.
2 min. read
What happens when small monthly cash payments are provided to low-income tenants in unstable housing situations?
For one thing, their chances of getting evicted or experiencing homelessness are dramatically reduced. That’s according to the first findings from a two-and-a-half-year study of a cash-assistance program in Philadelphia from a team of researchers led by Vincent Reina, a professor and associate chair in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design’s Department of City and Regional Planning, and Sara Jaffee, Class of 1965 Term Professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the School of Arts & Sciences.
“You’re seeing a dramatic improvement in housing stability outcomes,” says Vincent Reina, pictured with Sara Jaffee.
The study shows that tenants who received a monthly cash payment from the PHLHousing+ program, calculated to offset rents they struggle to pay, are up to 75% less likely to be evicted than tenants with similar incomes who didn’t receive the benefits. They also are less than half as likely to experience homelessness, and, after two years enrolled in the program, are 22% less likely to report serious concerns with housing quality.
“In this completely unrestricted form of rental assistance,” says Reina, founding director of the Housing Initiative at Penn, a research unit based at the Weitzman School, “you’re seeing a dramatic improvement in housing stability outcomes.” The findings are directly relevant to policymaking, Jaffee adds. “We hoped that a program that reduces housing cost burdens would reduce rates of forced moves and homelessness, but those rates dropped substantially,” she says. “I’m impressed by the size of the impact."
PHLHousing+ is a cash assistance initiative designed to help vulnerable tenants in Philadelphia pay their rent with as few obstacles as possible. Jaffee and Reina are working together to assess how rental assistance programs can influence life outcomes beyond housing stability, including social and emotional development and behavioral health. The ongoing study will probe data on family well-being, with questions about children’s feelings of depression and anxiety, rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors, and ability to sit still and concentrate. Other aspects of the study will examine the benefit’s effect on household mobility, neighborhood access, financial stability, and other outcomes.
This story is by Jared Brey. Read more at Weitzman News.
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