Study finds NYC’s tenant RTC improves child health, housing stability
A new study, Universal Access to Counsel, Housing Court Filings, and Child Mental Health: Evidence from New York City, found that tenant RTC in NYC had a big impact on families with children in terms of both health and housing stability. Specifically, RTC
reduces the probability of possessory judgment by 8 percent. Children in families with possessory judgments are 68 percent more likely to be evicted, 1.6 times more likely to change addresses, and 8 times more likely to reside in a homeless shelter in the postfiling period. They are also 53 percent more likely to have any mental health claim, 53 percent more likely to have therapy claims, and 83 percent more likely to have claims for psychiatric medications. The effects are strongest among children without prior mental health claims. For these children, the probability of mental health evaluations, therapy, and DAA roughly doubles following possessory judgments.
