TY  - JOUR
AU  - Curtis,Marah A.
AU  - Corman,Hope
AU  - Noonan,Kelly
AU  - Reichman,Nancy
TI  - Life Shocks and Homelessness
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16826
PY  - 2011
Y2  - February 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16826
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16826.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Marah A. Curtis
Boston University
School of Social Work
264 Bay State Road
Boston, MA  02215
E-Mail: mcurtis@bu.edu

Hope Corman
Department of Economics
Rider University
2083 Lawrenceville Road
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Tel: 609/895-5559
Fax: 609/896-5387
E-Mail: corman@rider.edu

Kelly Noonan
Department of Economics
Rider University
2083 Lawrence Road, Room SWG 306
Lawrenceville, NJ  08648
Tel: 609/895-5539
E-Mail: knoonan@rider.edu

Nancy Reichman
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Department of Pediatrics
Child Health Institute of New Jersey
89 French St., Room 1348
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
E-Mail: Nancy.reichman@umdnj.edu
AB  - We exploit an exogenous health shock—the birth of a child with a severe health condition—to investigate the causal effect of a life shock on homelessness. Using survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study that have been augmented with information from hospital medical records, we find that the health shock increases the likelihood of homelessness three years later, particularly in cities with high housing costs. Homelessness is defined using both a traditional measure and a more contemporary measure that includes residential instability and doubling up without paying rent. 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. They also add to a growing body of evidence that housing markets are an important contributor to homelessness and suggest that homelessness is a problem not easily addressed by existing public support programs.
ER  -