Housing Instability in an Era of Mass Deportations

The current era of mass deportation has disrupted a record number of families and households in immigrant communities. In most cases, when a parent is deported, the rest of the family stays in the United States. Among those who remain in the US, deportations can have broad ramifications for housing stability. I use linear regression models with metro area and year-fixed effects to examine metro residents responding to the Current Population Survey (2013–2016) and merge these observations with contextual, administrative data from the implementation of a national immigration enforcement program (Secure Communities). I find metro residents in shared households (i.e., households with multiple families) are more likely to experience housing instability in high deportation areas. The positive association between instability and deportations holds only among residents in Hispanic households where noncitizens are present. By contrast, other residents—including those living with non-Hispanic noncitizens, Hispanic U.S. citizens, or non-Hispanic U.S. citizens—are not more likely to report instability in high deportation metros. I discuss possible explanations for these findings and the implications of this study for housing inequality.