Government Assistance Protects Low-Income Families from Eviction.

A lack of affordable housing is a pressing issue for many low-income American families and can lead to eviction from their homes. Housing assistance programs to address this problem include public housing and other assistance, including vouchers, through which a government agency offsets the cost of private market housing. This paper assesses whether the receipt of either category of assistance reduces the probability that a family will be evicted from their home in the subsequent six years. Because no randomized trial has assessed these effects, we use observational data and formalize the conditions under which a causal interpretation is warranted. Families living in public housing experience less eviction conditional on pre-treatment variables. We argue that this evidence points toward a causal conclusion that assistance, particularly public housing, protects families from eviction.

High-Risk Obtainment of Prescription Drugs by Older Adults in New Jersey: The Role of Prescription Opioids.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the high-risk ways in which older adults obtain prescription opioids and to identify predictors of obtaining prescription opioids from high-risk sources, such as obtaining the same drug from multiple doctors, sharing drugs, and stealing prescription pads. DESIGN: Logistic regression analyses of cross-sectional survey data from the New Jersey Older Adult Survey on Drug Use and Health, a representative random-sample survey. PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged 60 and older (N = 725). MEASUREMENTS: Items such as obtaining prescriptions for the same drug from more than one doctor and stealing prescription drugs were measured to determine high-risk obtainment of prescription opioids. RESULTS: Almost 15% of the sample used high-risk methods of obtaining prescription opioids. Adults who previously used a prescription opioid recreationally had three times the risk of high-risk obtainment of prescription opioids. CONCLUSION: These findings illustrate the importance of strengthening prescription drug monitoring programs to reduce high-risk use of prescription drugs in older adults by alerting doctors and pharmacists to potential prescription drug misuse and interactions.