America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011
Housing Problems
Inadequate, crowded, or too costly housing can pose serious problems to children's physical, psychological, and material well-being.75, 76 Housing cost burdens, especially at high levels, are a risk factor for negative outcomes for children, including homelessness, overcrowding, poor nutrition, frequent moving, and lack of supervision while parents are at work.77 The percentage of households with children that report that they are living in physically inadequate,78 crowded, or costly housing provides insight into how commonly children's well-being may be affected by their family's housing.
Indicator Phys5: Percentage of households with children ages 0–17 that reported housing problems by type of problem, selected years 1978–2009
NOTE: Data are available for 1978, 1983, 1989, and biennially since 1993. All data are weighted using the decennial Census that preceded the date of their collection.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development, American Housing Survey. Tabulated by Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- In 2009, 45 percent of U.S. households (both owners and renters) with children had one or more of three housing problems: physically inadequate housing, crowded housing, or cost burden resulting from housing that costs more than 30 percent of household income.79 In comparison, 43 percent of households with children had a housing problem in 2007, and only 30 percent had a housing problem in 1978.
- A historically low percentage of households with children have physically inadequate housing, defined as housing with severe or moderate physical problems. In 2009, 5 percent of households with children had physically inadequate housing, compared with 9 percent in 1978.
- Crowded housing, defined as more than one person per room, remained stable at 6 percent of households with children in 2009, following reductions in crowded housing observed through 1993.
- Improvements in housing conditions, however, have been accompanied by rising housing costs. Between 1978 and 2009, the incidence of cost burdens among households with children more than doubled, from 15 percent to 39 percent. The proportion of households with severe cost burdens, defined as paying more than half of their income for housing, tripled over the same period, rising from 6 percent to 18 percent.
- Severe housing problems are defined as severe cost burdens or severe physical problems experienced by households that receive no rental assistance.80 The percentage of households with children facing severe housing problems increased from 15 percent in 2007 to 17 percent in 2009.
- Severe housing problems are especially prevalent among very-low-income renters.81 The incidence of severe problems among very-low-income renters with children increased from 35 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in 2009.
- During 2009, an estimated 346,000 children utilized homeless shelters or transitional housing services, a rate of 4.6 per 1,000 children.82 An estimated 156,000 children, or 2.1 per 1,000 children, were found to be homeless during a single night in January 2009.83
75 Breysse, P., Farr, N., Galke, W., Lanphear, B., Morley, R., and Bergofsky, L. (2004). The relationship between housing and health: Children at risk. Environmental Health Perspectives, 112 (15), 1583–1588.
76 Krieger, J., and Higgins, D.L. (2002). Housing and health: Time again for public health action. American Journal of Public Health, 92 (5), 758–68.
77 Bridge, C., Flatau, P., Whelan, S., Wood, G., and Yates, J. (2003). Housing assistance and non-shelter outcomes. Sydney, AU: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.
78 Physically inadequate units are defined as those with moderate or severe physical problems. Common types of problems include lack of complete plumbing for exclusive use, unvented room heaters as the primary heating equipment, and multiple upkeep problems such as water leakage, open cracks or holes, broken plaster, or signs of rats. See definition in Appendix A of the American Housing Survey. summary volume, American Housing Survey. for the United States: 2007. (2008). Current Housing Reports, Series H150, U.S. Census Bureau.
79 Paying 30 percent or more of income for housing may leave insufficient resources for other basic needs. See Panel on Poverty and Family Assistance, National Research Council. (1995). Measuring poverty: A new approach. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povmeas/toc.html.
80 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers renter households to have "priority" housing problems if they have eligible incomes for, but do not receive, rental assistance, and they report either severe housing cost burdens or severe physical problems with their housing units. Because of questionnaire changes, data after 1997 on assisted families, priority problems, and severe physical problems are not comparable to earlier data.
81 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines "very-low-income renters" as renter households with incomes at or below half the median family income, adjusted for family size, within their geographic area.
82 The estimates are based on Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data submitted by a nationally representative sample of communities, as well as volunteer Continuums of Care nationwide. The volunteer Continuums, unlike sample sites, represent only themselves in the national estimates, meaning that their data are not weighted to represent other communities. Client-level data in HMIS systems enable unduplicated counts across Continuum service providers of persons who used an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during a 12-month reporting period (October– September). Raw counts from each community are adjusted at the local level to account for programs that do not participate in HMIS. In total, the 2009 national estimates are based on data from 334 communities and represent over 570,000 personrecords. See U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Community Planning and Development. (2010). Annual homeless assessment report. Washington, DC: Author.
83 The estimate is based on a count of persons who, during a single night in January, were either using an emergency shelter or transitional housing services, or were on the street or other place not intended for human habitation. Continuum of Care service providers are required to conduct such counts as a condition of funding. The estimate has the limitation of relying on several assumptions about the comparability of sheltered and unsheltered populations and families. See U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Community Planning and Development. (2010). Annual homeless assessment report. Washington, DC: Author.