Housing and Children’s Healthy Development (HCHD) Study Series
The Housing and Children’s Healthy Development (HCHD) study is the first longitudinal randomized controlled trial designed to examine how the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program affects the healthy development of children ages 3-10. HCV is the largest housing assistance program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The study assessed how voucher-related changes in housing affordability, housing quality, and neighborhood safety impact children's physical, cognitive, and emotional development and overall well-being.
HCHD included four main aims:
- to learn how parents make choices about where to live while negotiating tradeoffs between dwelling unit quality, neighborhood quality, and school quality;
- to assess how features of the child's social contexts--home, neighborhood, and school--combine to influence key cognitive, socio-emotional, and health outcomes among parents and their children;
- to examine how the quality of housing affects parenting practices and outcomes for children and their caregivers; and
- to enhance the study of child development through theoretical and methodological advances in the study of housing and the other social contexts related to housing.
Additional information about the HCHD Study is available on the HUD Office of Policy Development and Research HCHD Study page.