https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7247-3902
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Abstract
Because housing is central to the recovery of individuals with experiences of homelessness and incarceration, it is important to consider how U.S. policies denying housing to residents with criminal histories can adversely affect racial and ethnic minorities and individuals with a history of homelessness. The state of Texas passed a rule specifying certain criteria that Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) supportive housing providers must use to screen tenants using criminal history. A retrospective cohort of 600 LIHTC supportive housing residents was used to estimate the potential impact of the rule. Based on this sample, the rule would have resulted in significantly higher proportions of Black and chronically homeless individuals being denied housing compared to the proportions of White and low-income individuals, respectively, who would have been denied housing. With the exception of drug convictions, there was no significant difference in recidivism between residents who would have been affected by the rule and unaffected residents who also had criminal justice involvement within a comparable time frame before move-in.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the leadership, staff, and residents of New Hope Housing, Inc. (NHH) without whom this study would not be possible.
Disclosure Statement
NHH had no input on analysis or reporting of these results. The primary author has disclosed those interests fully to Taylor & Francis and has in place an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from this arrangement. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the HPEER program or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Notes on contributors
Laura Witte
Laura Witte, DrPH, MPH, is an advanced postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the Health Professions Education Evaluation and Research fellowship and the National Center on Homelessness among Veterans fellowship. She completed postdoctoral research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) School of Public Health for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Homelessness and Housing Resource Center, which included authoring an online course about serious mental illness among individuals experiencing homelessness and leading a mixed-methods study exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected homelessness, housing instability, and mental health across the U.S. Throughout her education and training in public health, she has conducted community-based research with marginalized individuals with experiences such as homelessness, justice involvement, and sex work. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed articles and a book chapter, and she has served as an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness.
Jack Tsai
Jack Tsai, PhD, MSCP, serves as San Antonio Campus Dean and a professor of public health at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. He also serves as Research Director for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans. He is an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where he previously served on the faculty for a decade before coming to UTHealth. He has received federally funded grants and published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles on topics related to homelessness, severe mental illness, trauma, and health disparities. He has held leadership positions in the American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association, and he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, and as an associate editor for Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. He is Taiwanese American and has lived in various parts of the country as well as abroad. He currently spends time living in Houston and San Antonio and is actively involved in both communities.
Paula Cuccaro
Paula Cuccaro, PhD, is an assistant professor in health promotion and behavioral sciences at the UTHealth Houston School Public Health. Trained as a developmental psychologist, her primary research focus is adolescent health. She is particularly interested in improving health outcomes for vulnerable youth and has 80 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in this area. Her work includes the development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of youth health interventions, and she has served as the principal investigator or coinvestigator on more than 20 grants. She is currently conducting research on cancer prevention in medically underserved populations, healthy relationship development, mindfulness and health, and community and school-based interventions.
Andrea Link
Andrea Link, MD, is the Executive Director of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Houston Galveston at the John P. McGovern, MD, Center for Humanities & Ethics at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. She received her medical degree and training in pediatrics from Stanford University School of Medicine. After working as pediatrician with Texas Children’s Pediatric Associates, she spent three years working with incarcerated women. Based on this experience, she developed "Healthy and Whole," an innovative and award-winning program that provides women exiting prostitution and human trafficking with comprehensive trauma-informed health and wellness programming. Healthy and Whole also gave hundreds of medical, pharmacy, nursing, and social work students the opportunity to learn about and volunteer with marginalized communities. She has long advocated for the underserved, testifying in front of the Texas Supreme Court and presenting research at national conferences on the needs of women exiting the criminal justice system. She served as the Board Chair of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Houston Galveston for five years before becoming the executive director. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for New Hope Housing and the YES Prep Charter School System.
Vanessa Cox
Vanessa Cox, PhD, MS, is a principal biostatistician at Allucent, an international contact research organization. Throughout her career, she has conducted and contributed to research in clinical trials, academic, hospital, health care, and government settings. Skilled in epidemiology, biostatistics, clinical research, and data analysis and management, she has coauthored multiple peer-reviewed publications.
Vanessa Schick
Vanessa Schick, PhD, is a social psychologist and an associate professor at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Her community-based participatory research focuses on the needs of vulnerable and underserved populations, including those who have experiences with the criminal justice system, homelessness, or sex work, and she has more than 90 publications in this area. Much of her research focuses on nonmonosexual (e.g., bisexual women) and other sexual- and gender minority individuals. She is the co-author of several book chapters and co-authored a trade book that has been translated into several languages. She has been an invited speaker for more than 30 national and international conferences (including plenaries), with more than 100 peer-reviewed presentations. She has served on the editorial board for several top journals and is a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. She has been the principal investigator for 10 grants and contracts (and coinvestigator on multiple others) involving local, state and federal funding. She has received multiple professional awards for her work. During her career, she has mentored more than 50 graduate students, and she teaches graduate-level courses on health equity, cultural sensitivity, and survey design.