“Rx for Hunger: Affordable Housing”

The report examines the crucial role of subsidized housing in protecting young children from food insecurity and other health risks. The study, conducted in Boston, found that children living in subsidized housing were more likely to be food secure and less likely to be seriously underweight than children whose families were on the waiting list for subsidized housing.

For most families, housing is their single largest annual expenditure. Securing a housing subsidy -- which caps housing costs at 30 percent of a family’s income -- frees up resources that can be used to meet basic needs, including more nutritious food for children.

The report, which comes amid President Barack Obama's goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015, argues that nutrition programs alone cannot end food insecurity and childhood hunger. The authors make a number of recommendations to Boston officials, including an expansion of subsidized housing and an alignment of resources across a wide array of programs for low-income families.
 

Read the report.