Is Housing Stability Essential for Family Well-Being? A Forum on the Implications of the Family Options Study

The series brings together thought leaders to share forward-looking perspectives in the areas of health, social and environmental policy, and international development.
 

Click here to read a recap of the event.

This event featured a dialogue prompted by new evidence from the Family Options Study on the effects of providing permanent housing subsidies to homeless families. The forum addressed the results of the study, the effects of stable housing on child and family well-being, and the policy implications.

More than 150,000 families experience homelessness each year and are forced to seek emergency shelter or face life on the street. The Family Options study, led by Abt Associates for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, examined the best ways to help these families. The early results not only provide the first clear evidence about the best policies to help families who experience homelessness, but also contribute to the field’s growing understanding of the potential for stable, affordable housing to benefit children and families in other ways, such as reducing economic and psychological stress, supporting family stability, and reducing food insecurity.
 

Participants Include:

Stephen Bell
Senior Fellow, Vice President, Social and Economic Policy, Abt Associates

Jennifer Cannistra
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Ron Haskins
Co-Director, the Brookings Center on Children and Families and Budgeting for National Priorities Project

Aletha C. Huston
Pricilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Child Development at the University of Texas at Austin

Ianna Kachoris
Program Officer, the MacArthur Foundation

Jill Khadduri
Senior Fellow and Principal Associate, Social and Economic Policy, Abt Associates

Jeff Lubell
Director of Housing and Community Initiatives, Abt Associates

Sandra Newman
Director, Center on Housing, Neighborhoods and Communities, Johns Hopkins University

Katherine M. O'Regan
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Kathy Stack
Vice President of Evidence-Based Innovation, The Laura and John Arnold Foundation