Project Summary:
Evaluation of the Illinois Stability Investment for Family Housing Program
Largest Randomized Study of Cash Transfers for Families Experiencing Homelessness Tests Whether One-Time Financial Assistance Can Prevent Housing Instability and Improve Children’s Educational Outcomes
During the 2022–2023 school year, nearly 1.4 million students in the United States experienced homelessness. State and local governments are increasingly turning to one-time cash assistance as a tool for homelessness prevention, yet rigorous evidence on whether this approach works for families with children remains limited. In 2025, the Illinois Stability Investment for Family Housing (SIFH) program provided a one-time, unrestricted cash transfer of $6,500 to families with school-aged children experiencing homelessness. CoLab awarded a research grant to the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab to fund the follow-up analysis of this large randomized evaluation of cash transfers for families experiencing homelessness, tracking whether the SIFH program’s assistance improves housing stability, prevents future episodes of homelessness, and supports children’s educational outcomes.
Partners
CoLab funded the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab (IEL) to lead the evaluation. IEL conducts applied research on economic mobility and works closely with government agencies to implement rigorous trials that inform policy decisions. IEL has extensive experience evaluating housing interventions, cash transfer programs, and policies affecting families experiencing housing instability.
IEL is working with several key collaborators. Particularly significant collaborators include the Illinois Department of Human Services Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, which designed and funded the SIFH program, the randomized controlled trial implementation and served as the primary payment administrator. GiveDirectly was also a key partner in program administration, supporting the application and verification process, recruitment and payment distribution. Chicago Public Schools and the Illinois State Board of Education were involved in providing referrals and supported recruitment and they will provide student outcome data for the study.
What they will do
The study uses a randomized controlled trial design to rigorously assess the causal impacts of one-time cash assistance on family housing stability and children’s outcomes. Researchers recruited 1,779 eligible families through school districts and emergency shelters between January and March 2025. Families were randomly assigned to receive $6,500 (750 families), $500 (750 families), or no initial cash transfer (279 families).
The study population includes both families experiencing literal homelessness (32% of participants) and those living doubled up with friends or family (68%), reflecting the broader McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness used in schools. Roughly 94% of participants identify as women, 68% identify as Black, and 28% identify as Hispanic.
The research team will track outcomes across multiple domains using administrative data from eight agencies and sources, supplemented by surveys administered at three, six, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four months after the cash transfer:
- Homelessness: literal homeless and living doubled up
- Housing stability: residential mobility and access to higher opportunity neighborhoods; self-reported stability and comfort of housing
- Children’s school engagement and academic achievement: attendance, school transfers, enrollment, and graduation
- Children’s disciplinary outcomes: misconduct and juvenile criminal legal involvement
- Family financial well-being: earnings, employment, government benefit enrollment, and credit scores
- Parent engagement: self-reported time spent with children
The study also includes a cost-benefit analysis using the Marginal Value of Public Funds framework, which will estimate the full return on public investment by accounting for direct program costs alongside potential long-term fiscal effects such as reduced shelter costs or gains from improved child outcomes.
Grant type:
- Long-term outcomes
Focus area:
- Income and wealth building
population:
- Young adults, older adults, families with children
When it will happen
The project began in January 2026 and will continue through September 2029. The study will track participant outcomes for up to three years following the cash transfer. Like most CoLab-funded evaluations, future potential CoLab funding could support continued follow-up over many years to track sustained outcomes and long-term impact on economic mobility. IEL has developed plans to extend administrative data tracking for up to six years after the intervention.
Why it matters
Making serious progress in reducing family homelessness requires flexible, effective, and cost-efficient interventions backed by rigorous evidence. State and local governments across the country are implementing or considering one-time financial assistance as a primary policy tool for homelessness prevention. A previous impact evaluation found that one-time financial assistance reduced homelessness and shelter use, but both studied a smaller cash amount, had a smaller sample size and lacked the long-term child outcome data that this study will include.¹
This evaluation addresses critical gaps in the evidence base in several important ways. Most cash assistance interventions evaluated to date have not been specifically designed for homelessness prevention. This study tests whether a substantial one-time transfer of $6,500, equivalent to roughly three months of median Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for a three-bedroom unit in the Chicago area, can produce meaningful and sustained impacts on housing stability and children’s educational trajectories.
The study also expands beyond the narrow federal definition of literal homelessness to include families living doubled up, who are often excluded from federal housing assistance. Research shows that doubling up frequently precedes episodes of literal homelessness. This study will test whether early intervention can prevent shelter entry among these families.
If the evaluation demonstrates that this approach effectively supports children’s long-term outcomes, reduces reliance on costly shelter systems, and prevents progression to deeper housing instability, findings have the potential to inform smarter policy and funding strategies for addressing family homelessness.
¹Dwyer, R., Palepu, A., Williams, C., Daly-Grafstein, D., & Zhao, J. (2023). Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.