Housing Instability Is Driving Child Welfare Involvement

“To improve child safety outcomes, eviction and homelessness should not be treated as proxies for parental failure.

Across the country, housing instability places families with children in frequent contact with the child welfare system, even in the absence of abuse or intentional neglect. Families who are homeless, temporarily sharing housing with relatives or friends because they cannot secure stable, independent housing, or living in unsafe or temporary conditions are more likely to be reported to child protective services (CPS) because their living situations are visible, precarious, and closely scrutinized. In many cases, the concern triggering intervention is not parental behavior but the lack of adequate housing itself. Although most states formally prohibit removing a child solely due to homelessness or poverty, nearly every state still treats inadequate shelter as a form of neglect, creating a pathway for housing instability to draw families into the child welfare system despite the absence of abuse.”