6 Evaluating Housing Equity Free Online FlashCards

What spending levels commonly indicate housing cost burden and severe burden?

Spending more than 30% of household income on housing is a common cost-burden threshold; more than 50% often indicates severe burden.

What important hardship can cost-burden thresholds fail to show?

Cost-burden thresholds do not show how much income remains for necessities such as food, transportation, and health care.

Why use multiple measures to evaluate an affordable housing development?

Combine measures such as affordable-unit supply with household cost burden and housing stability to see whether people actually benefit.

Why do shelter counts understate the extent of homelessness?

Shelter counts miss some people experiencing homelessness, including people staying temporarily with others or living unsheltered.

Why compare both rates and counts across population groups?

Report both rates and counts: a smaller group may experience a high rate of harm even if its total number of affected people is lower.

Why assess housing outcomes at both neighborhood and wider-market levels?

A citywide improvement can coexist with worsening conditions in a particular neighborhood, so evaluate both neighborhood and wider-market outcomes.

What can be missed when an evaluation studies only program participants?

Evaluating only participants can overlook eligible people who could not apply, were denied, or faced barriers to participation.

What can descriptive monitoring reveal, and what can it not establish by itself?

Descriptive monitoring identifies trends over time or across groups and places, but alone it cannot establish that a policy caused a change.

How can a comparison-group design help evaluate an intervention?

Comparison-group designs compare participants with similar households or communities that did not receive the intervention; randomized assignment can strengthen causal conclusions when feasible.

What can qualitative research add to a housing evaluation?

Interviews, focus groups, and community observation can explain why a program works or fails and reveal burdens or experiences missing from administrative data.

Why assess program reach as well as its outcomes for participants?

Assess whether the program reached its intended population, along with resources, delays, eligibility rules, and service quality. Limited reach can restrict community-wide impact.

What trade-offs should be assessed when affordable homes are built in higher-opportunity areas?

Evaluate who is housed, household stability, access to jobs and services, and integration; higher-opportunity locations can improve some access measures while changing who receives assistance.