Cleveland's Housing Crisis and Its Impact

By Reilly O'Donnell

7/18/26

“But why aren’t there any resources to help me stay in my home before falling behind on rent while 8 months pregnant?”

Unfortunately, this is a question that captures the feeling of hopelessness a mother experiences after realizing that the resources she needs to keep her family off of the streets are extremely limited. To understand how appalling this can be for women, it is important to be educated about how high female poverty rates are and the emotional effect that homelessness and/or housing instability has on their children.

While many programs, like The Haven Home or Family Promise of Greater Cleveland, have been launched to help prevent housing instability for expecting and/or postpartum mothers, a limited number of organizations have explored the possibility of helping fund families before they fall into default of rent. The United States Census Bureau concluded that, in the years 2023 and 2024, the percentage of females living in poverty who were the heads of their households with no spouse was 21.8. Because this number is almost double the percentage of single male householders, it is alarming that more resources aren’t available to help with both the roles of a female: expecting mother and head of the household. In Cleveland alone, the percentage of poor families that have only a female householder with no spouse is 69.5%, while men with no spouse are at 11.5% and poor married-couple families are 19.0%. Why isn’t there a plentiful list of resources that will render rental assistance for struggling single mothers to provide stable housing for their children, ultimately leading to long-term success?

Another factor to look at when advocating for stable housing is the negative correlation between homelessness and youth and its effects on mental health and child development. The emotional distress brought by housing instability may affect a child even before birth if the mother experiences issues with housing while pregnant. Some health effects that may occur are delivery complications, preterm births, and possible admission in neonatal intensive care units. It’s important to create programs that help mothers gain access to stable housing prior to pregnancy or delivery to prevent these negative developments from occurring. If a mother is taken care of, then the safe and stable housing during childhood promotes opportunities for education and a path to generational economic and housing security.

The term “childhood trauma” is not merely limited to the emotional turmoil that an individual faces during adolescence. The stability of the environment in which they grow up in can also be a contributing factor. With the alarming percentage of mothers who face housing insecurity and its drastic effects on their babies, it is essential to create impactful programs that offer families stability before the worst occurs. 

Sources:

• Academic Pediatrics. “Housing Instability and Homelessness in Pediatrics: A Narrative Review of Health Impacts and Multi-level Interventions.” ScienceDirect.com, 2026

• City Data. “Poverty in Families in Cleveland, Ohio.” City-Data.com, 2026

• Shrider, Emily A., and Christinia Bijou. “Poverty in the United States: 2024.”

• Yee, Lynn M. “Housing instability and adverse perinatal outcomes: a systematic review.”