Proximity augments homeless students' educational outcomes. Homeless K-8 graders whose families are placed in shelters … proceed from novel administrative data on homeless families observed in the context of a scarcity-induced natural experiment …

find that families placed in shelters in their neighborhoods of origin remain there considerably longer than those assigned … to distant shelters. Locally-placed families also access more public benefits and are more apt to work. A fixed effects … model assessing multi-spell families confirms these main results. Complementary instrumental variable and regression …