2024 Spring Seminar Series Seminar: Andrew Sullivan University of Central Florida

Homeless shelter openings and housing sale prices

Yoon-Jung Choi, Florida International University

Saerim Kim, Suffolk University

Andrew Sullivan, University of Central Florida

We ask how opening a homeless service provider affects housing prices locally, using parcel-level data on house sales and services in Florida from 2010-2020. We estimate non-parametric local polynomial regressions and spatial difference-in-differences (bandwidth 0.1 miles) of home prices at different distances in the years before and after the homeless shelter openings, comparing variation in sales prices marginally further away. We find evidence of a small, positive relationship that fades out after 0.1 miles for site-based services. Homeless services may therefore provide an amenity to the community, sheltering people already living unsheltered and therefore increasing prices.