Research

My current research focuses on US housing policy and it's implications for health, well-being, and neighborhood attainment across the life course. I examine the effects of major housing assistance programs from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order to understand how access to stable and affordable housing can affect outcomes for disadvantaged children and adults. I began this work as a Fellow at the National Center for Health Statistics, using a novel survey-administrative linkage to show that adults receiving housing assistance enjoy health and healthcare benefits.

I have project on housing assistance and kids' outcomes funded by an R21 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Health and Human Development. This work draws on a linkage between the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and administrative records from HUD to study how housing assistance programs--public housing and housing vouchers--affect the health and well-being of children. I am also involved in two multi-year projects focusing on the effects of housing assistance on various health outcomes and exposures. An NIDDK project (led by Danya Keene) examines housing programs and diabetes managment, both nationwide using NHANES-HUD data and in a New Haven, CT cohort. A grant from the HUD Healthy Homes Technical Studies program (led by Ami Zota) uses nationwide data to examine housing assistance and environmental risk exposures.

Finally, I am starting a new project on housing vouchers and neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA in collaboration with Selena Ortiz. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Policies for Action, we are studying the new Mobility Vouchers and Mobility Counseling programs with the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. The goal of the project is to determine how an increased payment standard for vouchers used in high-opportunity neighborhoods combined with counseling support for tenants and landlords can increase racial integration and racial equity in the city of Pittsburgh.