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Housing & Child Welfare
Information on housing issues and programs for families and youth receiving child welfare services, including State and local examples.
National Center for Housing and Child Welfare
National Center for Housing and Child Welfare (2010)
Bridges the gap between affordable housing and child welfare to improve the lives of America's most economically disadvantaged youth and families. The center also works to ensure that each young person who faces adulthood without the support of a permanent family has a plan for housing and services to support them in adulthood.
Family Unification Vouchers
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Information on how to apply for family unification vouchers, which provide rental subsidies to families with children who have been placed, or are at risk of placement, in foster care primarily because the family lacks adequate housing.
Bricks, Mortar, and Community: The Foundations of Supportive Housing for Pregnant and Parenting Teens: Findings from the Field (PDF - 1,034 KB)
Healthy Teen Network & Child Trends (2010)
Identifies a set of core components for supportive housing programs using the results from quantitative and qualitative surveys, as well as information gathered during a national advisory group of partners in the fields of housing, child welfare, transitional living, and pregnant/parenting teen programs.
Completing the Circle of Care: Alternative Housing at Hope Meadows (PDF - 1648 KB)
Generations of Hope Development Corporation (2010)
Examines the possibility of alternative housing for seniors in an intergenerational community designed to support families who have adopted children from foster care.
Family Unification Program: Serving Homeless and At-Risk Homeless Families and Youth (PDF - 543 KB)
Strengthening At Risk and Homeless Young Mothers and Children (2009)
Explains the intersection of homelessness and child welfare, and highlights a program that provides housing choice vouchers to communities to help preserve and reunify families in the child welfare system and assist in the transition of youth aging out of care. Components of the program are described, as well as findings from an evaluation of the program that investigated the impact of the program on homeless families with children.
From Poverty to Child Welfare Involvement: The Critical Role of Housing in Family Stability (PDF - 109 KB)
Torrico
Children, Youth and Families Practice Update, 2009
Explains the challenges families living in or near poverty face in meeting their children's basic needs, the incidence of homelessness, and the correlation between child maltreatment, and inadequate housing and homelessness.
Is Supportive Housing a Cost-Effective Means of Preserving Families and Increasing Child Safety?: Cost Analysis of CSH's Keeping Families Together Pilot (PDF - 339 KB)
Corporation for Supportive Housing (2011)
Findings from Metis Associates' evaluation of the Keeping Families Together pilot were used to compare the cost of the supportive housing intervention with the cost of the reductions in public service use. The study examined the costs associated with the families' use of foster care services and homeless shelters in the 2 years before and 2 years following families' placement into Keeping Families Together.
Keeping Families Together Matters: An Introduction to Creating Supportive Housing for Child Welfare-Involved Families (PDF - 924 KB)
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation & Corporation for Supportive Housing (2012)
Based on lessons learned from New York City's Keeping Families Together pilot program, this guide reviews the core components of the program including targeted recruitment, multisystem collaboration, clinical consultation, and evaluation. Tools include tip sheets for building collaboration and a community readiness checklist.
Linking Human Services and Housing Assistance for Homeless Families and Families at Risk of Homelessness (PDF - 1,423 KB)
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, & Abt Associates (2012)
Presents findings from 14 onsite case studies of communities that coordinate federally funded housing supports and comprehensive services to more effectively serve homeless families and families at risk of becoming homeless. Information about the structure of the programs are examined and common promising practices are identified.
Planning the Housing Opportunity and Services Together Demonstration: Challenges and Lessons Learned (PDF - 2,447 KB)
Urban Institute (2012)
Provides an overview of the demonstration project's effort to test strategies that use housing as a platform for services to improve the life chances of vulnerable children, youth, and adults. Early challenges, successes, and strategies to build collaborative programs are discussed.
Rescuing Children and Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions
Shdaimah
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 36(3), 2009
View Abstract
Reports data from a qualitative study exploring perceptions of child welfare professionals about housing-related child welfare decisions.
Supportive Housing for Families in Child Welfare: Client Characteristics and Their Outcomes at Discharge
Farrell, Britner, Guzzardo, & Goodrich
Children and Youth Services Review, 32(2), 2010
View Abstract
Describes client characteristics, progress, and outcomes at discharge from a Supportive Family Housing (SFH) program. Provides initial endorsement for the SHF model and makes suggestions for program practice, future research, and policy.
State and local examples
The Effect of Recession on Child Well-Being: A Synthesis of the Evidence by PolicyLab, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (PDF - 1677 KB)
First Focus, Foundation for Child Development, & PolicyLab at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (2010)
Synthesizes evidence of the effects of recession on child well-being. Examines four domains—health, food security, housing stability, and maltreatment—and reviews the relationship of each to the well-being of children during recessions, past and present.
The Role of Supportive Housing in Homeless Children's Well-Being: An Investigation of Child Welfare and Educational Outcomes (PDF - 2191 KB)
Hong & Piescher
Minnesota-Linking Information for Kids, 11, 2012
Evaluates children's experiences of homelessness and access to supportive housing services as they relate to child well-being over time.