Short Moves and Long Stays: Homeless Family Responses to Exogenous Shelter Assignments in New York City

Arbeitspapier

Using an original administrative dataset in the context of a scarcity induced-natural experi-ment in New York City, I find that families placed in shelters in their neighborhoods of origin remain there considerably longer than those assigned to distant shelters. Locally-placed families also access more public benefits and are more apt to work. A fixed effects model assessing multi-spell families confirms these main results. Complementary instrumental variable and regression discontinuity designs exploiting policy shocks and rules, respectively, suggest difficult-to-place families – such as those that are large, disconnected from services, or from neighborhoods where homelessness is common – are especially sensitive to proxi-mate placements. Better targeting through improved screening at intake can enhance pro-gram efficiency. The practice of assigning shelter based on chance vacancies ought to be replaced with a system of evidence-based placements tailored to families' resources and constraints.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13559

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Government Policy ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Household Analysis: General ; National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs ; State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: homelessness ; neighborhoods ; families ; poverty alleviation ; housing ; public assistance ; welfare policy ; labor supply ; program evaluation ; causal inference

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Cassidy, Michael T.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/224001
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET