The Challenge
A growing body of research has established the connection between housing and specific outcomes for youth, including their mental and physical health, access to care, educational achievement, likelihood of incarceration, and employability. While there is increasing demand to classify housing as a social determinant of health, research findings have not been presented in ways that impact how housing policy is formulated or how public housing investments are decided. Policymakers need actionable data connected to specific policy levers that improve youth outcomes, as well as tools and processes that ensure youth outcomes are incorporated into housing policy decision-making.
The Project
Through his Stoneleigh Fellowship, Vincent Reina is partnering with the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development, Philadelphia Housing Authority, and Local Initiatives Support Corporation to create knowledge, policy tools, and stakeholder networks that strengthen understanding of the impact of housing on youth outcomes and develop a new model for housing policy decision-making.
The Stoneleigh Fellowship is enabling Vincent to:
- Build an empirical basis for understanding the impact of housing stability on short- and long-term youth outcomes in order to inform housing policy and investment decisions.
- Develop tools that partner agencies can use to incorporate youth outcomes into their housing policy decisions.
- Facilitate the creation of local networks focused on housing and youth outcomes to collect feedback and help cultivate new, cross-sector relationships among youth-focused stakeholders.
