Severe and persistent housing instability: examining low-income households’ residential mobility trajectories in the United States

Given the growing threat of housing instability in the United States, this study explores the variability in housing instability experiences in terms of severity and persistence by tracking low-income households in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data from 2003 to 2017. First, this study examines the associations between one housing instability incident at a particular time and subsequent mobility trajectories. Second, by incorporating sequence analysis, this study explores the conditions under which low-income households are likely to suffer from more chronic forms of housing instability. The results reveal that the more severe one housing instability incident is, the more prolonged the entire housing instability experience is likely to be over time. The ability to maintain homeownership, repeated transitions in partnerships, job insecurity, and repetitively moving across distressed neighborhoods are the conditions for housing instability that occurs more frequently. Moreover, younger households and households with a member with health problems are likely to suffer from more chronic forms of housing instability.