TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of Federal Homelessness Funding on Homelessness
AU - Lucas, David S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Each year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports funding allocations for the main homelessness grant programs by service type. Table 1 details federal funding allocations for FY 2012 by program type. In 2013, the CoC grant and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG)—the two main programs—allocated over $1.95 billion to local communities. The CoC program grant awards funding directly to CoC collaborative applicants; the funds are disbursed across nonprofit and government organizations. The ESG allocates funding directly to city, county, and state governments, who use these funds to operate homelessness programs directly or to subgrant to nonprofits. Nearly $2 billion was allocated across CoC and ESG program grants in 2012, 85% and 15% of this total, respectively. The largest share of funds (52%) was for permanent supportive housing programs designed to provide homeless individuals with long-term housing stability with the support of continued, voluntary, individualized services (Rog et al. 2014). Transitional housing programs, aimed at assisting the homeless to transition from shelter into independent or permanent supportive housing, received 21% of funding. Emergency Shelter (under the ESG program grant) received about 15%. The remaining funds were allocated across various supporting programs.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the Southern Economic Association
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - Federal spending on homelessness has increased significantly in recent years. I estimate the relationship between federal homelessness funding and homeless counts in 2011, 2013, and 2015 cross sections. I instrument for funding using a community's pre-1940 housing share, a key variable in an originally unrelated funding formula borrowed for homelessness grants. Funding increases sheltered homelessness; meanwhile, funding is unrelated to unsheltered homelessness. Lower bound estimates suggest that the minimum cost of reducing unsheltered homelessness has increased over time, from $16,400 in 2011 to $20,800 in 2013 to $50,000 in 2015. In 2013, an additional $1 thousand dollars corresponds to a.309 higher homeless rate per 10,000 people. The effect is larger for families than individuals. Funding is positively related to chronic homelessness and is unrelated to youth and child homelessness. My results suggest limitations on federal funding's ability to reduce homelessness among some of the most marginalized groups in society.
AB - Federal spending on homelessness has increased significantly in recent years. I estimate the relationship between federal homelessness funding and homeless counts in 2011, 2013, and 2015 cross sections. I instrument for funding using a community's pre-1940 housing share, a key variable in an originally unrelated funding formula borrowed for homelessness grants. Funding increases sheltered homelessness; meanwhile, funding is unrelated to unsheltered homelessness. Lower bound estimates suggest that the minimum cost of reducing unsheltered homelessness has increased over time, from $16,400 in 2011 to $20,800 in 2013 to $50,000 in 2015. In 2013, an additional $1 thousand dollars corresponds to a.309 higher homeless rate per 10,000 people. The effect is larger for families than individuals. Funding is positively related to chronic homelessness and is unrelated to youth and child homelessness. My results suggest limitations on federal funding's ability to reduce homelessness among some of the most marginalized groups in society.
KW - C26
KW - I38
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U2 - 10.1002/soej.12231
DO - 10.1002/soej.12231
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85030784516
SN - 0038-4038
VL - 84
SP - 548
EP - 576
JO - Southern Economic Journal
JF - Southern Economic Journal
IS - 2
ER -