More housing stability over time<\/p>\n
The one-of-a-kind pilot is the result of a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, which has operated the program on behalf of the city.\n<\/p>\n
A total of 301 renter households agreed to participate after they were randomly selected from waitlists maintained by the PHA. To be eligible, they had to earn less than 50% of the area median income \u2014 $59,700 a year for a family of four in 2025 \u2014 and have at least one child under 16. They also couldn\u2019t have a housing voucher or live in a public housing unit.\n<\/p>\n
Each month, households received between $45 and $2,433, depending on the need, according to the report.\n<\/p>\n
Researchers compared the program participants\u2019 experiences to the experiences of two other cohorts \u2014 a group of 170 households who were offered tenant-based housing vouchers and 725 \u201ccontrol households,\u201d who received no rental subsidy and remained on a PHA waitlist.\n <\/p>\n
They found that, relative to households receiving no subsidy, the cash assistance led to a 75% reduction in so-called \u201cforced moves\u201d for participants after two years in the program. The term covers formal evictions<\/a>, as well as more informal actions<\/a> that left families looking for a new place to live, such as a landlord changing the locks.\n<\/p>\n The study also shows that participating households experienced homelessness at about half the rate of the control households after two years in the program.\n<\/p>\n Penn psychology professor Sara Jaffee, who directs the university\u2019s Risk and Resilience Lab, said that, over time, housing stability often helps improve a family\u2019s overall quality of life.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s robust literature showing that households that are more housing secure, households that are not facing evictions, who are not making multiple moves, who are living in higher-quality homes, that adults and children in those households have better mental health, have better physical health,\u201d Jaffee said.\n<\/p>\n