The impact of housing status and race on juvenile drug court completion in Texas

Research indicates that stable housing is crucial for youth development and that there is a relationship between youth homelessness and negative juvenile justice outcomes. To prevent these, guidance for juvenile drug courts emphasizes the importance of stable housing. However, prior research has not examined the possible conditioning effect of race and housing on programmatic success. We examined this possibility using a sample of youth from Texas juvenile drug courts. Results indicate that youth with nonpermanent housing were no more, or less, likely to graduate compared to youth with permanent housing and that race did not moderate this relationship. Additionally, older youth and girls were more likely to graduate. Future research is needed to examine the possibility of other factors impacting this relationship that we did not have access to such as victimization, child protective service involvement, and physical health, as prior research indicates these are correlates for housing instability. Juvenile drug court success was not dependent upon housing status, race, or their interaction in our sample. This may be due to measurement but may also indicate that programmatic success is possible despite a lack of permanent housing.