HUD Administrative Data Now Linked to National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

Atticus Jaramillo
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Michael D. Webb
Community Science

Jon M. Hussey
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This article describes a new dataset that links U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administrative data (1995–2017) to survey and biomarker data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Add Health is a nationally-representative cohort study that aims to broaden understanding of how overlapping life contexts—such as school, family, and peer context—influence the outcomes of adolescents as they age into adulthood, with a primary focus on health and well-being. Add Health has tracked these outcomes through five waves of data collection between 1995 and 2018. The linked HUD-Add Health dataset identifies 1,159 Add Health respondents who received federal rent assistance between 1995 and 2017 and provides information about their stay in federally assisted housing (for example, type of assistance received, years assisted). This article describes how this dataset was created and outlines analytic considerations for researchers.