Due to rising rents, many low-income families pay very high shares of their incomes for housing. They may miss rent payments to meet other basic needs, and they frequently experience eviction or even homelessness. More than 1.29 million school-age children in America lived in families without homes of their own during the 2014-15 school year, Education Department data show. But Housing Choice Vouchers are highly effective at protecting children from these risks.
Rigorous research shows that vouchers — which enable families to rent decent, modest, private-market housing for about 30 percent of their income — sharply reduce the frequency with which low-income families move and the share of such families that live in overcrowded housing, doubled up with other families, in shelters, or on the streets (see chart).
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