Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Demography. 2024 Aug 1;61(4):1069-1096. doi: 10.1215/00703370-11458327.
Access to safe and stable housing is important for child and adult well-being. Yet many low-income households face severe challenges in maintaining stable housing. In this article, we examine the impact of the 2021 temporary expansion to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) on housing affordability and the living arrangements of families with low incomes. We employ a parameterized difference-in-differences method and leverage national data from a sample of parents who are receiving or recently received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (N = ∼20,500), many of whom became newly eligible for the CTC. We find that the monthly CTC reduced parents' past-due rent/mortgages (both amounts and incidence) and their reports of potential moves due to difficulties affording rent/mortgages. The CTC increased the likelihood that parents reported a change in their living arrangements and reduced their household size, both effects driven by fewer mothers living with a partner (and not a reduction in doubling up). We find some differences in effects by race and ethnicity and earnings. Our findings illustrate that the monthly credit improved low-income parents' ability to afford housing, gain residential independence from partners, and reduce the number of people residing in their household.
获得安全稳定的住房对儿童和成人的福祉很重要。然而，许多低收入家庭在维持稳定住房方面面临着严峻的挑战。在本文中，我们考察了 2021 年儿童税收抵免（CTC）临时扩大对住房负担能力和低收入家庭居住安排的影响。我们采用参数差异法，并利用接受或最近接受补充营养援助计划（SNAP）福利的父母的全国性数据样本（N=∼20500）进行分析，其中许多人新获得了 CTC 的资格。我们发现，每月 CTC 减少了父母拖欠的租金/抵押贷款（金额和发生率），以及他们因无力支付租金/抵押贷款而可能搬家的报告。CTC 增加了父母报告居住安排发生变化和家庭规模缩小的可能性，这两个效应都源于与伴侣（而不是与他人合租）一起生活的母亲人数减少。我们发现，这些影响在种族和族裔以及收入方面存在一些差异。我们的研究结果表明，每月的信贷改善了低收入父母的住房支付能力，使他们从伴侣那里获得了居住上的独立性，并减少了居住在他们家中的人数。
