(PS1-B34) Housing Instability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Factors Impacting Emergency Housing Assistance Utilization

It is well understood that housing is an important social determinant of health. Housing instability is related to significant health inequities, especially for individuals from marginalized communities, due to systemic and structural issues, and addressing housing instability reduces health inequities (Swope & Hernández, 2019; Thomson et al., 2009). Many Americans are already housing cost overburdened (paying 30% or more of total income on rent), which was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent research posits that housing instability and income inequality further exacerbate COVID-19’s impact on mental health (Bernardini et al., 2021). Research also shows that severity and persistence of past housing instability relates to future housing instability (Kang, 2021). Therefore, understanding what relates to increased risk of housing instability, and specifically the persistent need for housing assistance, is critical to inform prevention and policy efforts. 

Housing assistance programs, also called prevention programs, may be effective at reducing homelessness (Evans et al., 2016) and are associated with better health outcomes in adulthood (Fenelon et al., 2017). In response to COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Treasury distributed billions of dollars to provide housing assistance, including rental assistance, utility assistance, and housing stabilization services, targeting low-income renters experiencing financial hardships due to COVID-19. The mid-sized city of Lincoln, Nebraska was allocated over 30 million federal housing assistance funds and over 24 million dollars have been distributed thus far.

The current study will explore factors associated with more persistent need for housing assistance during COVID-19 in Lincoln using ongoing programmatic data that is collected and stored in the Nebraska Homeless Management Information System. The study sample will include Heads of Households (HoHs) who received housing assistance over a 24-month period, between July 2020 and June 2022. Though data collection is ongoing, preliminary analyses with 4,156 HoHs reported the following demographics: 66.5% white, 70.1% female, and 69.4% under 51% Area Median Income (AMI). Housing assistance utilization ranges from 1 to 18 months and forthcoming bivariate and multivariate analyses will examine what demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, race, ethnicity), household factors (i.e., household size, household type, AMI, other assistance utilization), and community factors (i.e., zip code) are associated with duration of housing assistance.

While links between homelessness, housing instability, and health outcomes are well-established, empirical research on prevention programs is lacking, and the significant increases in federal funding due to COVID-19 has granted a novel opportunity to better understand the impact of preventative housing assistance. The current study aims to characterize housing insecure households and their utilization of housing assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for this research include further understanding housing assistance needs and potential disparities during COVID-19, which may inform future efforts to prevent homelessness and address health inequities.