This interim report examines the impact of HUD assistance on the rate at which assisted children experience adverse childhood events (ACEs), which can include all varieties of abuse; exposure to violence; exposure to substance abuse; physical and emotional neglect; and disruptions in household stability. Evidence suggests on average individuals exposed to ACEs experience detrimental outcomes that persist into adulthood. Children from lower-income families face more ACEs than those from higher-income families, but the impact of HUD assistance specifically had not been examined prior to this study. In this interim report, the researchers linked HUD administrative data to the University of North Carolina's National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) dataset in order to compare the outcomes of assisted and unassisted households. Add Health data is a longitudinal study of 90,118 students in grades 7-12 during 1994-1995, of which 20,745 adolescents were sampled to complete an in-home interview. Four additional waves of data have been collected from 1996 -2018. For this study researchers identified low-income unassisted HUD households for comparison to assisted households within the data set. Results from analysis were not determined to be statistically significant, however illustrate the methods utilized in matching HUD administrative data and demonstrate the ability to provide additional research capacity and analysis.

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