Housing conditions of low-income families in the private, unassisted housing market in the United States

The housing conditions of low-income Americans, particularly those in or near poverty, have been documented in several government and private reports, as well as academic articles. These studies have either ignored or given scant attention to the differences in housing conditions between those families who receive various forms of public assistance and those who do not. Although most welfare programmes are provided as entitlements to those eligible, housing assistance is provided to only a few households who qualify-about one-in-four. The remaining households find their housing in the private, unassisted market. Little is known about the housing conditions of poor families who do not receive housing assistance, not to mention those who receive no public assistance. Asserting a serious scarcity of minimal standard housing units which are affordable to the poor, previous studies suggest that those not receiving housing assistance face virtually insurmountable obstacles to physically and financially adequate housing. Using the American Housing Survey (1991), housing and neighbourhood quality are examined for unassisted and assisted families. The prevalence of doubling-up among unassisted families and the implications of doubling-zip for housing and neighbourhood quality are examined.