The National Center on Family Homelessness recently released a new brief on the cost of homelessness. The brief explores the housing, health and educational consequences of homelessness.
Category Archives: Research and Reports
Eviction (Without) Notice
Eviction (Without) Notice: Renters and the Foreclosure Crisis
This report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty shows how, for many low-income renters, the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) is all that stands between housing and homeless. It also includes a nationwide survey of tenants’ rights advocates and renters themselves, showing how often PTFA is violated, and offers recommendations to better protect renters under the law.
Additionally, the report surveys state laws in all 50 states and points out where they fall short of or improve upon the protections of PTFA.
According to the report’s survey of tenants’ rights advocates, the most common PTFA violations are:
- Lack of communication from the new owner (85.9%);
- Illegal, misleading, or inaccurate written notices (68.1%);
- Harassment from real estate agents, law firms, or bank representatives (61.1%); and
- Failure to maintain the property (64.3%).
The most common violations reported in the survey of renters include:
- New owners bad faith assertions that respondents tenancies are not bona fide;
- Failure of new owners to determine the occupancy status of residents in foreclosed properties; and
- Failure of new owners to provide information on where to pay rent and/or request property maintenance.
The report’s recommendations include:
- Congress should pass legislation to make PTFA permanent federal law;
- Congress should amend PTFA to include a private right of action that lets renters sue owners for misconduct under the law; and
- State legislatures should enact increased protections for renters living in foreclosed properties.
The Boston Globe: Children of Working Poor Caught in Pinch of Recession
From the Boston Globe
Children of Working Poor Caught in Pinch of Recession
Many sacrifice school for wages
By Megan Woolhouse
December 17, 2012
Salvarys Rafael Caban, 17, grew up fast, working several jobs while a student at Brighton High School so he could help his mother, a cafeteria cashier, pay the bills.
Education quickly became an afterthought for the teen, who went to school late or not at all as he sought more hours and bigger paychecks to contribute to his family’s support. He began failing classes, and graduation seemed less and less likely.
“As long as I was getting paid, I didn’t care,” said Caban.
The economic downturn of recent years has fallen particularly hard on low-income households, forcing teens to trade school for work and put their futures at risk. Yet more families are confronting this problem because incomes — especially among the working poor — have stagnated since the recession officially ended in 2009.
A new report, “How Youth Are Put At Risk By Parents’ Low Wage Jobs,” by researchers at the University of Massachusetts and Boston College, says that adolescents, who often take on adult responsibilities to help keep families afloat, ultimately bear the brunt of these decisions. As they neglect their education, falling further behind in class and often dropping out, they increase the risk that they, too, will become trapped in low-paying jobs.
“Low-wage work is the new poverty,” said Randy Albelda, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Boston and one of the report’s authors. “It’s not good for those kids, their school districts, and the economy as a whole if we’re keeping kids back because of the quality of their parents’ job.”
Research on the dynamics in poor, working families is relatively new and has rarely focused on adolescents, who face “disproportionate challenges” in such households, according to the report. Young people from such homes have a much stronger likelihood they will drop out of school, become obese, or have children as teenagers.
The authors found that 3.6 million of the nation’s 20 million adolescents, or nearly 1 in 6, live in a low-wage home. In Massachusetts, that’s any family in which a parent earns no more than $13.35 an hour or, if employed full-time, about $26,700 a year.
These young people are the sons and daughters of cashiers, nurses’ aides, janitors, and others with low-paying occupations. Since the recession, they have fallen further behind, with their incomes growing at less than half the rate of inflation.
As education and skills become increasingly important in the modern economy, these trends threaten to accelerate, sustaining the cycle of poverty while widening the gap between rich and poor. The unemployment rate among high school dropouts was more than 12 percent in October, compared with less than 4 percent among workers with at least a bachelor’s degree.
High school dropouts will earn less than half the lifetime income of those with bachelor’s degrees, according to US Census studies.
Meanwhile, the numbers of working poor are on the rise, said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. Workers earning less than $11 an hour — the equivalent of about $23,000 a year for those working full time — rose to 28 percent of the nation’s workforce last year, up from 23 percent in 2006, he said.
“The impact on educational achievement is going to be one of the biggest scars left from the recession,” Mishel said. “From everything we know, high persistent unemployment will do more damage to the educational prospects of low-income students than all the positive outcomes from educational reforms that people talk about.”
Bobby Bryant of Mattapan is an example. A lanky high school junior, he cares for his 3-year-old twin sisters most evenings, putting them to bed so his mother can go to her job as an event coordinator. On weekends, he said, he cares for his own daughter, who is 5.
He enrolled at ABCD University High School, an alternative school in the Boston public school system that helps students who, because of family obligations or other reasons, need flexible school schedules so they do not drop out. He gave up basketball, began looking for a job, and continues to help his mother.
“Me taking care of my sisters is more important than me playing basketball,” he said.
Bryant’s mother, Yolanda Williams, said she has always relied on her son for help. When he was growing up, she worked three jobs, including a day job at a dental office, evenings in retail, and weekends at Burger King while relatives cared for Bryant and his brother.
Youth and Work in Massachusetts
From the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center
Youth and Work in Massachusetts
For a young adult just out of school, finding that first job has never been easy. Unfortunately, over the past ten years finding that first job has gotten harder. A job market in which more jobs require advanced training, coupled with the lingering effects of the recent deep recession have produced even greater employment obstacles to the young.1 Recent education statistics from the state show that while high school dropout rates are declining, low-income youth or those with limited English proficiency or disabilities are less likely to graduate than other young people. In fact, the number of young adults who are neither in school nor working (so-called “disconnected youth”) is growing. This population presents a particular challenge to the state’s economy, as those young adults are at greater risk for longer-term unemployment and social dislocation.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
In 2011, 13.8 percent or close to one in seven young adults (ages 16-24) in Massachusetts are unemployed.2 This is a dramatic increase—more than doubling—of the youth unemployment rate in 2000, which was 6.7 percent, or one in fifteen.
The unemployment rate for young adults is almost twice the unemployment rate for all adults. Even though the impacts of the recession may be easing off, the unemployment rate for young adults in Massachusetts increased substantially as the recession hit, and has remained high since then, rising into the double digits. The unemployment rate for all adults dropped slightly between 2009 and 2011, while the unemployment rate for young adults has essentially remained unchanged.
Another way to think about employment is to look at the employment to population ratio. This statistic emphasizes the share of a total population (for example, young adults ages 16-24) who are employed. Not all of these young adults are wishing to be employed of course, some are in school full time, some are at home raising children, and others may be out of the labor force intentionally for other reasons.
According to a recent analysis conducted by the Population Reference Bureau for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the employment to population ratio for young adults in Massachusetts in 2011 was 48 percent. This number is close to the national average of 46 percent. In Massachusetts, this number represents 405,000 working young adults. In contrast, in 2000, the employment population ratio in Massachusetts was 59 percent, or 441,000 young adults.3 This drop over the past 10 years is a significant drop in the percentage of young adults able to find work.
Click here to read the full report.
Click here to read the national report on the same topic.
Ending Family Homelessness: National Trends and Local System Responses
In October the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released a new white paper on family homelessness and Puget Sound area system responses. While the white paper is focused on the Puget Sound region many of the lessons are transferable to the Massachusetts system.
Ending Family Homelessness: National Trends and Local System Responses
Prepared for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Corporation for Supportive Housing
This paper is designed to provide stakeholders in the Homeless Families Initiative with information on national trends that are suggesting significant changes in the country’s approach to ending family homelessness and guidance for responding to these changes by creating well-designed local systems.
Part one of this paper is based on a literature review and analysis of national research on the characteristics of homeless families, typologies of homeless families, and the components of a coordinated system. Part two provides a framework for determining the right balance of interventions in Washington’s Pierce, King and Snohomish Counties and examines potential changes to the use of existing resources.
Click here to download the full white paper.
Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness: Race and Housing Instability
From the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness
Profiles of Risk No. 11: Race and Housing Instability
“Profiles of Risk: Race and Housing Instability” is the 11th and final research brief in this ICPH series, which draws on data from the nationwide Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to highlight characteristics of families at greatest risk of experiencing homelessness. This brief explores differences between poor Hispanic and non-Hispanic black mothers, finding that black women, despite higher levels of educational attainment, experience more housing instability than their Hispanic counterparts. The brief notes that factors contributing to this racial disparity include higher rates of single parenthood, relationship instability, and drug use among black women than among their Hispanic counterparts. ICPH will continue to analyze data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study in future research.
Massachusetts among States with Highest Inequality
From the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center
Massachusetts among States with Highest Inequality
The gap between Massachusetts’ richest and poorest households is the 8th highest in the nation, according to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.
Comparing income inequality in all fifty states over the last 3 decades, the report finds that:
- As of 2008-2010 (the most recent data available), the highest-income 20% of households in Massachusetts had incomes over 8 times larger than the lowest-income 20%.*
- From the late 1970s to the mid 2000s, this gap grew faster in Massachusetts than in every state but one (CT).*
Income for the top 20% of households in Massachusetts more than doubled between the late 1970s and the mid 2000s (adjusted for inflation). By contrast, the bottom 20% saw virtually no income growth over that same period.*
To provide a fuller picture of the situation in Massachusetts, MassBudget has put together an accompanying slideshow, with additional information about statewide inequality, poverty, the minimum wage, and more.
Read PULLING APART, a joint report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute
View MassBudget‘s Slideshow PULLING APART IN MASSACHUSETTS
2012 Greater Boston Housing Report Card released
From Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
2012 Greater Boston Housing Report Card Released
By admin
On November 14, the Dukakis Center along with the Boston Foundation released the 2012 Greater Boston Housing Report Card.
This report marks the 10th anniversary of the annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card. Each year since 2002, we have probed Greater Boston’s housing landscape, keeping tabs on housing construction, home prices and rents. We have analyzed the relationship between the region’s economy, demography and housing, and we have kept track of federal, state and local government policies that affect the region’s housing market. Year by year, we have reported on this vital sector of the region’s economy, based on the belief that providing decent housing for all at prices they can afford is not only a moral responsibility, but an economic necessity if the region is to retain its talent pool.
This 2012 Greater Boston Housing Report Card is dedicated to understanding a new period in the region’s housing market and what it will take to meet the goal of affordable housing for all who need it. There are now even stronger signs than we saw in 2010 that the housing market is recovering. We may be at a new point in the housing cycle where housing demand—both in the homeowner market and in the rental market—will begin once again to outstrip supply, particularly given the lack of production since 2005, falling vacancy rates, and a stronger economy that is attracting new workers to the region.
But the changes we discern in demographics and consumer behavior require a new housing paradigm because the challenge we face is more than just the sheer amount of housing production. Fundamental structural changes in the age composition of the region’s population; in the income, wealth, and debt distribution of the region’s households; and in generational differences in consumer behavior will almost certainly alter the types of housing we will need over the next decade, as well as the places within the region where that housing will need to be located. If developers, communities, and state and local government respond proactively to these underlying changes, we will be in a better position to fulfill the moral responsibility of providing affordable housing to all who need it. Moreover, we will better meet the economic necessity of lowering the housing cost hurdles that make it difficult for young households to remain in Greater Boston, while simultaneously lowering the cost barrier to those who would like the opportunity to move here.
Before considering what this new paradigm would entail, it is helpful to examine what has happened in the region’s housing market over the past year. We see signs of recovery in the housing market along all of the standard measures we have tracked—sales, prices, rents, permits and foreclosures. Whether this is leading to a return to the normal patterns that have prevailed in past decades or, alternatively, whether it signals a major transformation of the Greater Boston housing market is the big question this time around.
Linking Human Services & Housing Assistance for Homeless Families & Families At-Risk of Homelessness
From the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Linking Human Services & Housing Assistance for Homeless Families & Families At-Risk of Homelessness
Alvaro Cortes, Ph.D. et al.
Abt. Associates
April 2012
Recent reports have brought national attention to the prevalence of family homelessness and the need to coordinate across all levels of government to prevent and end family homelessness. In June 2011, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), the sixth in a series of annual reports on the extent and nature of homelessness nationwide. The report documents a 29 percent increase in sheltered family homelessness between 2007 and 2010. Today, an estimated 168,000 families— 567,000 people—use an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program at some point during the year. The toll of homelessness on children living with their families is troubling. Homelessness can adversely affect children’s mental health and behavior, school attendance and educational achievement, cognitive and motor development, and general health.
A year prior to the 2010 AHAR release, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. The plan sets an ambitious agenda for addressing homelessness among families and other target groups, stresses governmental collaboration at all levels, and encourages using programs targeted to homeless families and mainstream resources to help families achieve housing stability. The growing concern about family homelessness has renewed the focus among policymakers, researchers, advocates, and practitioners on using mainstream programs to prevent and end homelessness. The underlying belief is that programs explicitly for homeless people cannot be expected to do the whole job of preventing and ending family homelessness. Indeed, ever since the start of specialized federal funding for homeless people, it has been recognized that mainstream programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provide much greater resources than targeted programs for helping families leave homelessness.
It is within this context that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) commissioned a study that focuses on local programs that link human services with housing supports to prevent and end family homelessness.
The primary goals of this study are to:
1. Identify programs nationwide that deliberately integrate human services and housing supports for homeless families and conduct site visits to understand how these programs were designed and implemented.
2. Synthesize the information from the site visits into promising practices that facilitated the development, implementation, and sustainability of these programs.
In addition, the study includes the development of an evaluation design document that provides a theoretical framework for rigorously evaluating programs that integrate services and housing supports for the purposes of preventing or ending family homelessness
Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk
University of Minnesota researchers examined academic achievement data across third through eighth grades (N = 26,474), comparing students identified as homeless or highly mobile (HHM) with other students in the federal free meal program (FM), reduced price meals (RM), or neither (General). Achievement was lower as a function of rising risk status (General > RM > FM > HHM). Achievement gaps appeared stable or widened between HHM students and lower risk groups. Math and reading achievement were lower, and growth in math was slower in years of HHM identification, suggesting acute consequences of residential instability. Nonetheless, 45% of HHM students scored within or above the average range, suggesting academic resilience. Results underscore the need for research on risk and resilience processes among HHM students to address achievement disparities. Click here to access the full study.