Neighbourhood violence and housing instability: an exploratory study of low-income women

Abstract

Housing instability remains a persistent problem in the United States. While physical and gun violence negatively affect communities, little is known about whether and how they are associated with the risk of housing instability. This study uses structural equation modelling to explore these relationships and examine how they may be mediated by other neighbourhood social and physical factors. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a sample of mostly low-income urban women, we find that witnessing violence is positively associated with the risk of experiencing housing instability. Also, having a deadly gun shooting in proximity of the home was only indirectly associated with housing instability. These findings underlie links between neighbourhood violence and housing instability that were previously understudied. This exploratory study provides some potential new avenues of investigation regarding neighbourhood safety, urban housing policy, and social inequity reduction.

Keywords:

• Housing instability
• gun violence
• violence exposure
• low-income women
• homelessness

Acknowledgements

The Fragile Families Study was funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD (#R01HD36916) and a consortium of private foundations. Persons interested in obtaining Fragile Families contract data should see http://www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu for further information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

This study uses the restricted version of the publicly available Fragile Families data.

Persons interested in obtaining Fragile Families contract data should see http://www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu for further information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian King

Christian King is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida. His research interests focus on health disparities and social inequalities such as housing instability and urban poverty.

Xi Huang

Xi Huang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Her research areas include urban policy, immigration, and the well-being of the vulnerable populations.