IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v50y2013i6p2227-2253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Shocks and Homelessness

Author

Listed:
  • Marah Curtis
  • Hope Corman
  • Kelly Noonan
  • Nancy Reichman

Abstract

We exploited an exogenous health shock—namely, the birth of a child with a severe health condition—to investigate the effect of a life shock on homelessness in large cities in the United States as well as the interactive effects of the shock with housing market characteristics. We considered a traditional measure of homelessness, two measures of housing instability thought to be precursors to homelessness, and a combined measure that approximates the broadened conceptualization of homelessness under the 2009 Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act ( 2010 ). We found that the shock substantially increases the likelihood of family homelessness, particularly in cities with high housing costs. The findings are consistent with the economic theory of homelessness, which posits that homelessness results from a conjunction of adverse circumstances in which housing markets and individual characteristics collide. Copyright Population Association of America 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Marah Curtis & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan & Nancy Reichman, 2013. "Life Shocks and Homelessness," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2227-2253, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:50:y:2013:i:6:p:2227-2253
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-013-0230-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13524-013-0230-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-013-0230-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glomm, Gerhard & John, Andrew, 2002. "Homelessness and labor markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 591-606, September.
    2. Marah A. Curtis, 2007. "Subsidized housing, housing prices, and the living arrangements of unmarried mothers," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 145-170, January.
    3. Early, Dirk W., 2005. "An empirical investigation of the determinants of street homelessness," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 27-47, March.
    4. Coker, T.R. & Elliott, M.N. & Kanouse, D.E. & Grunbaum, J.A. & Gilliland, M.J. & Tortolero, S.R. & Cuccaro, P. & Schuster, M.A., 2009. "Prevalence, characteristics, and associated health and health care of family homelessness among fifth-grade students," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(8), pages 1446-1452.
    5. Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2006. "Effects of Child Health on Sources of Public Support," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 136-156, July.
    6. Wood, D. & Haldez, B. & Hayashi, T. & Shen, A., 1990. "Homeless and housed families in Los Angeles: A study comparing demographic, economic, and family function characteristics," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(9), pages 1049-1052.
    7. Phinney, R. & Danziger, S. & Pollack, H.A. & Seefeldt, K., 2007. "Housing instability among current and former welfare recipients," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(5), pages 832-837.
    8. Honig, Marjorie & Filer, Randall K, 1993. "Causes of Intercity Variation in Homelessness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 248-255, March.
    9. Nancy Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2004. "Effects of child health on parents’ relationship status," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(3), pages 569-584, August.
    10. John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael & Eugene Smolensky, 2001. "Homeless In America, Homeless In California," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 37-51, February.
    11. Elise Gould, 2004. "Decomposing the effects of children's health on mother's labor supply: is it time or money?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 525-541, June.
    12. Edgar O. Olsen & Dirk W. Early & Paul E. Carrillo, 2010. "A Panel of Price Indices for Housing, Other Goods, and All Goods for All Areas in the United States 1982-2008," Virginia Economics Online Papers 377, University of Virginia, Department of Economics.
    13. Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan & Nancy E. Reichman, 2005. "Mother's Labor Supply in Fragile Families: The Role of Child Health," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 601-616, Fall.
    14. Reichman, Nancy E. & Teitler, Julien O. & Garfinkel, Irwin & McLanahan, Sara S., 2001. "Fragile Families: sample and design," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4-5), pages 303-326.
    15. Elizabeth T. Powers, 2003. "Children’s Health and Maternal Work Activity: Estimates under Alternative Disability Definitions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(3).
    16. Kelly Noonan & Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman, 2005. "New Fathers' Labor Supply: Does Child Health Matter?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 1399-1417, December.
    17. Thomas Deleire & Ariel Kalil, 2002. "Good things come in threes: Single-parent multigenerational family structure and adolescent adjustment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 393-413, May.
    18. Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan & Nancy Reichman & Ofira Schwartz-Soicher, 2011. "Life Shocks and Crime: A Test of the “Turning Point” Hypothesis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 1177-1202, August.
    19. Link, B.G. & Susser, E. & Stueve, A. & Phelan, J. & Moore, R.E. & Struening, E., 1994. "Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(12), pages 1907-1912.
    20. Susin, Scott, 2002. "Rent vouchers and the price of low-income housing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 109-152, January.
    21. He, Yinghua & O'Flaherty, Brendan & Rosenheck, Robert A., 2010. "Is shared housing a way to reduce homelessness? The effect of household arrangements on formerly homeless people," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Christopher Thomas & Guzman, David & Ponath, Claudia & Tieu, Lina & Riley, Elise & Kushel, Margot, 2016. "Residential patterns in older homeless adults: Results of a cluster analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 131-140.
    2. Frijters, Paul & Krekel, Christian & Ulker, Aydogan, 2020. "Machiavelli versus Concave Utility Functions: Should Bads Be Spread out or Concentrated?," IZA Discussion Papers 13021, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2022. "Do early episodes of depression and anxiety make homelessness more likely?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 654-674.
    4. Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2019. "Do childhood experiences of parental separation lead to homelessness?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 211-236.
    5. Noonan, Kelly & Corman, Hope & Reichman, Nancy E., 2016. "Effects of maternal depression on family food insecurity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 201-215.
    6. Gold, Sarah & Wagner, Brandon, 2022. "Acute care utilization and housing hardships in American children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Anna Zhu, 2017. "Childhood homelessness and adult employment: the role of education, incarceration, and welfare receipt," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 893-924, July.
    8. Locks, Gedeão & Thuilliez, Josselin, 2023. "The impact of minimum income on homelessness: Evidence from France," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. Devin Q. Rutan & Matthew Desmond, 2021. "The Concentrated Geography of Eviction," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 693(1), pages 64-81, January.
    10. Kelly Noonan & Hope Corman & Nancy E. Reichman, 2014. "Effects of Maternal Depression on Family Food Insecurity," NBER Working Papers 20113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Nancy Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2015. "Effects of maternal depression on couple relationship status," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 929-973, December.
    12. Tammy Leonard & Amy E. Hughes & Sandi L. Pruitt, 2017. "Understanding How Low–Socioeconomic Status Households Cope with Health Shocks," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 669(1), pages 125-145, January.
    13. Corman, Hope & Curtis, Marah A. & Noonan, Kelly & Reichman, Nancy E., 2016. "Maternal depression as a risk factor for children's inadequate housing conditions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 76-83.
    14. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2019. "Homelessness research: A guide for economists (and friends)," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-25.
    15. Scheffler, Bernie, 2020. ""It's Real": Experiences of Family Homelessness in Fort Worth, Texas," SocArXiv ya7m6, Center for Open Science.
    16. Hashmi, Rubayyat & Alam, Khorshed & Gow, Jeff, 2020. "Socioeconomic inequalities in mental health in Australia: Explaining life shock exposure," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 97-105.
    17. Scheffler, Bernie, 2020. ""It's Real": Experiences of Family Homelessness in Fort Worth, Texas," Thesis Commons u2n6p, Center for Open Science.
    18. McVicar, Duncan & Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2015. "From substance use to homelessness or vice versa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 89-98.
    19. Timothy M. Diette & David C. Ribar, 2018. "A Longitudinal Analysis Of Violence And Housing Insecurity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1602-1621, July.
    20. Anne Clark, 2018. "The role of residential mobility in reproducing socioeconomic stratification during the transition to adulthood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(7), pages 169-196.
    21. Frijters, Paul & Krekel, Christian & Ulker, Aydogan, 2023. "Should bads be inflicted all at once, like Machiavelli said? Evidence from life-satisfaction data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1-27.
    22. Barrett A. Lee & Marybeth Shinn & Dennis P. Culhane, 2021. "Homelessness as a Moving Target," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 693(1), pages 8-26, January.
    23. Corman, Hope & Noonan, Kelly & Reichman, Nancy E., 2014. "Effects of infant health on family food insecurity: Evidence from two U.S. birth cohort studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-25.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marah A. Curtis & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan & Nancy E. Reichman, 2012. "Life Shocks and Homelessness," Working Papers 1374, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    2. repec:pri:crcwel:wp12-03-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Anette Primdal Kvist & Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen, 2011. "The effects of Children’s ADHD on Parents’ Relationship Dissolution and Labor Supply," Economics Working Papers 2011-14, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    4. Porto Natalia & Carella Laura & Rucci Ana Clara & Velazquez Cecilia, 2023. "Children living with disabilities and mother`s labor supply in developing countries: evidence from Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4686, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    5. Corman, Hope & Noonan, Kelly & Reichman, Nancy E., 2014. "Effects of infant health on family food insecurity: Evidence from two U.S. birth cohort studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-25.
    6. Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan & Nancy Reichman & Ofira Schwartz-Soicher, 2011. "Life Shocks and Crime: A Test of the “Turning Point” Hypothesis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 1177-1202, August.
    7. Curtis, Marah A. & Corman, Hope & Noonan, Kelly & Reichman, Nancy E., 2010. "Effects of child health on housing in the urban U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2049-2056, December.
    8. Hope Corman & Anne Carroll & Kelly Noonan & Nancy E. Reichman, 2006. "The Effects of Health on Health Insurance Status in Fragile Families," NBER Working Papers 12197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Dohoon Lee & Margot Jackson, 2017. "The Simultaneous Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Child Health on Children’s Cognitive Development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1845-1871, October.
    10. Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2006. "Effects of Child Health on Sources of Public Support," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 136-156, July.
    11. Peter Burton & Kelly Chen & Lynn Lethbridge & Shelley Phipps, 2017. "Child health and parental paid work," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 597-620, June.
    12. Schultz, Jennifer & Corman, Hope & Noonan, Kelly & Reichman, Nancy E., 2009. "Effects of child health on parents' social capital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 76-84, July.
    13. Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2013. "Effects of Mental Health on Couple Relationship Status," Working Papers 1473, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    14. Kröll, Alexandra & Farhauer, Oliver, 2012. "Examining the roots of homelessness: The impact of regional housing market conditions and the social environment on homelessness in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201213, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    15. Kevin Corinth & Grace Finley, 2020. "The geography of unsheltered homelessness in the city: Evidence from “311” calls in New York," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 628-652, September.
    16. Nancy Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2015. "Effects of maternal depression on couple relationship status," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 929-973, December.
    17. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Herault, Nicolas & Scutella, Rosanna & Tseng, Yi-Ping, 2016. "A journey home: What drives how long people are homeless?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 57-72.
    18. Timothy M. Diette & David C. Ribar, 2018. "A Longitudinal Analysis Of Violence And Housing Insecurity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1602-1621, July.
    19. Zeng‐Hua Lu & Alec Zuo, 2010. "Effects Of A Child'S Disability On Affected Female'S Labour Supply In Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 222-240, September.
    20. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2004. "Wrong person and wrong place: for homelessness, the conjunction is what matters," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, March.
    21. Eriksen, Tine L. Mundbjerg & Gaulke, Amanda & Skipper, Niels & Svensson, Jannet, 2021. "The impact of childhood health shocks on parental labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:50:y:2013:i:6:p:2227-2253. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.