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Abstract
Housing insecurity among families, often precipitated by poverty and material hardship, is associated with an increased risk of child maltreatment. Housing problems at the individual level suggests a lack of affordable housing options within neighborhoods yet research on neighborhood effects and child maltreatment rates has tended to focus on housing quality rather than affordability. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the scarce knowledge base of how the geographic availability of affordable housing is related to neighborhood child maltreatment rates. Utilizing secondary data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the California Child Welfare Indicators Project, this study sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the relationship between the geographic availability of federally sponsored affordable housing programs and neighborhood child maltreatment rates, controlling for sociodemographic factors? (2) What is the relationship between geographic housing burden and neighborhood child maltreatment rates, controlling for sociodemographic factors? This study utilized a cross-sectional ecological design and employed spatial analysis to explore the research questions. The sample included 2,341 census tracts in Los Angeles County, CA. Results show that neighborhoods with greater housing burden and greater amounts of federally sponsored affordable housing units had higher rates of child maltreatment, possibly due to the clustering of these properties in disadvantaged communities that have limited access to supportive resources. Moreover, neighborhoods with higher levels of concentrated disadvantage, larger numbers of African American/Black residents, and larger numbers of Hispanic/Latino residents also had higher rates of child maltreatment. These findings are consistent with previous research indicating that rates of child maltreatment are unequally distributed across space with low-income, communities of color having disproportionate rates of child welfare system involvement. These findings have implications for social work macro practice that promotes inclusive, equitable communities as a primary strategy for the prevention of child maltreatment.