The association between social housing concentration and the education and health outcomes of social housing tenants: A cross-sectional study of over 200,000 people in New Zealand

In New Zealand, and globally, concerns that living in areas of concentrated social housing will depress the outcomes of its tenants have led to policy directives to limit the proportion of social housing in any one community. This study explores the rationale for these initiatives through the innovative use of administrative linked data for 200,000 New Zealand social housing tenants. We analyse associations between the concentration of social housing (as measured by the proportion of social housing tenants relative to the rest of the area population) and their education and health outcomes seven-to-nine years later. We find that – contrary to policy assumptions – outcomes for social housing tenants are similar or slightly better when they have lived in areas with more concentrated social housing.