Evictions, foreclosures disrupt access to safety net programs

Key takeaways:

• 1 in 5 children with a cost-driven move experienced a coverage gap for at least one social safety net program.
• Access to WIC was the most frequently disrupted.

Children who experienced a residential move because of unaffordable rents, evictions or foreclosures were also likely to lose access to safety net programs, researchers reported in Pediatrics.

“My team and I have studied the impact of evictions on children's health and development and found that evictions can be incredibly damaging to kids’ health,” Kathryn M. Leifheit, PhD, MSPH, a social epidemiologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, told Healio. “If you're getting evicted, at the very least, you should be able to rely on access to” programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Children, and Infants (WIC) and Medicaid.

“This is the thing that's supposed to help you and protect you during a really traumatic time in life, and it might actually be more likely to go away because we've placed so much administrative burden on people and so many requirements to recertify these benefits,” she said.

Leifheit and colleagues reviewed data on 9,344 children from Baltimore and Philadelphia who were recruited into the Children’s HealthWatch survey between 2011 and 2019 and were eligible for safety net programs.

According to the researchers, 21% of the children experienced a coverage gap for at least one social safety net program — 75% of these participants had disrupted access to WIC, 20% had disrupted access to SNAP and 16% had disrupted access to Medicaid. Non-cost-driven moves were also associated with disruptions to at least one safety net program but less strongly so.

The authors said the findings merit attention from policymakers, particularly given high levels of financial strain and housing insecurity among low-income families during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent period of inflation.

“It's really important for clinicians to help families stay enrolled in things like SNAP and WIC and Medicaid, and clinic-based social workers can help with that,” Leifheit said.

In an accompanying editorial, Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, PhD, MPH, and Sharon M. Coleman, MPH, MSPT, of the Boston University School of Public Health, said housing-specific policy investments are also crucial, such as “expanding rental assistance to include all income eligible households, increasing the inventory of housing affordable to the lowest income families, and providing emergency assistance to keep people in their homes.”

“Innovation in public policy that keeps families at the center by streamlining access to public benefits and supporting families in achieving economic stability is essential for supporting children’s health,” they wrote. “Pediatric providers have an important role to play in both keeping families connected to support and advocating for nuanced, cross-sector policies that help families stabilize, in turn, freeing bandwidth for basic needs, as well as planning for a brighter future.”

References:

• Ettinger de Cuba S, et al. Pediatrics. 2024;doi:10.1542/peds.2023-063971.
• Leifheit KM, et al. Pediatrics. 2024;doi:10.1542/peds.2023-061934.