Background: Inadequate housing or lack thereof is a common problem among families experiencing child maltreatment. Federal housing assistance is the primary vehicle through which low-income families can be assisted with housing needs. Yet, we are unaware of previous work investigating whether housing assistance receipt reduces risk of child maltreatment beyond samples of CPS-involved families.

Methods: Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, we examine whether housing assistance receipt reduces a parent’s risk of child abuse and neglect using behavioral approximations, as well as risk of being reported to CPS. We use three analytic techniques to reduce selection bias in the estimate of the effect of housing assistance receipt—pooled linear regression with controls, individual fixed effects, and instrumental variables regression.

Results: We find that assistance receipt reduces the risk of supervisory neglect and abuse, but not physical neglect.

Conclusions: Government programs responsible for providing in-kind support to low-income families may serve as a measure of prevention for maltreatment risk. Given the overrepresentation of impoverished families in the child welfare system, some of the costs of federal housing assistance may be offset by reductions in the variety of costs stemming from child maltreatment.