Housing security has long been recognized as an integral component of the economic, physical, and emotional health and wellbeing of individuals and families. The lack of access to safe and stable housing is viewed by many as an indicator of severe social exclusion, particularly for individuals...

We exploit an exogenous health shock the birth of a child with a severe health condition to investigate the causal effect of a life shock on homelessness. Using survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study that have been augmented with information from hospital medical...