Children’s HealthWatch Policy Action Brief
October 15, 2012

Children’s HealthWatch analyzed nearly 5,000 surveys from Baltimore families with children under age four collected between 2002-2011. In this sample, just 49% of families were stably housed. Compared to those in stably housed families, housing insecure families were more likely to experience fair or poor health, developmental delays and food insecurity. For example, children in families who were crowded or behind on rent were about 22% less likely to be classified as “well” on a composite scale of child well-being than were children in stably housed families. Long-term programs (e.g. the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program) and short-term programs (e.g. Rental Allowance Fund housing subsidy program) must be adequately funded and coordinated to ensure children in Maryland are able to receive the assistance they need.

Click here to read the Policy Action Brief.

Click here to read the more about this research project and to see the other briefs in this series