Four Grinnell Faculty Awarded Grant from Mid-Iowa Health Foundation for Housing Study

Four faculty members at Grinnell College have been awarded a $311,000 grant from the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation (MIHF) to lead a collaborative research study examining the impact of emergency rental assistance on low-income households across Central Iowa.

The research team includes Andrea Hall, assistant professor of economics; Logan Lee, associate professor of economics; Tamara McGavock, associate professor of economics; and Karla Erickson, Rosenfield Professor of Social Studies and professor of sociology. Together, they will partner with MIHF on the Central Iowa Emergency Rental Assistance Study. The study is supported through a public/private funder collaborative consisting of both local and national partners. The study is the second initiative supported under the funders’ UpLift – Research to Inform Economic Mobility Solutions portfolio.

President Anne F. Harris, said, “This project exemplifies the goals of our strategic plan, Knowledge into Action—it supports close partnerships with our central Iowa neighbors to create knowledge that can bring about positive social change, drawing on the expertise of our outstanding faculty members while also providing high-impact experiences for students. It advances the goals of our NSF EPIIC grant, which is meant to build Grinnell's capacity to conduct research that can have a real-world impact on our region."

“I’m so thrilled to be part of this project, which allows for collaborations within the economics and sociology departments, and with incredible local agencies doing important work. It's a unique opportunity to do research with clear impacts -- and it's exciting to contribute to a gap in our knowledge about housing assistance,” said Hall. 

The project is designed to better understand how emergency rental assistance programs affect housing stability and economic well-being, while also providing actionable insights on the cost-effectiveness and scalability of different assistance models. MIHF will work alongside nonprofit organizations and government partners in Polk, Dallas, and Warren counties to implement multiple approaches to emergency rental assistance, while the Grinnell research team will assess outcomes through surveys and in-depth interviews with participating renters and landlords.

Lee said, “This project gives us a unique opportunity to understand the role of emergency rental assistance in providing both stability and improving long-term outcomes for recipients. I am particularly excited that we will be able to do this work close to home in central Iowa where it will hopefully have direct policy relevance.”

In addition to advancing knowledge in housing policy, the project will create hands-on research opportunities for Grinnell students, who will contribute as undergraduate research assistants throughout the study.

Erickson said, “I am happy to be collaborating with my colleagues in Economics to run an experiment in rent assistance. I look forward to learning from my colleagues and our community partners, and to offering students opportunities to play a role in applied research as part of their undergraduate work.”

McGavock said, “I’m especially excited by the chance to collaborate with Grinnell colleagues across sociology and different areas within economics. That kind of collaboration is rare here, and it gives us a valuable opportunity to bring multiple perspectives to an important policy issue.”

President and CEO of Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, Nalo Johnson, said, “As an organization operating with a public health lens, we understand economic health and well-being as the predominant driver of all other health outcomes.  We are excited to partner with an outstanding research team at Grinnell College to help our community understand the most impactful ways in which an emergency rental assistance program may be designed.” 

Mid-Iowa Health Foundation

Mid-Iowa Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation supporting community health efforts in central Iowa for over 40 years.  With an emphasis on addressing the social drivers of health and investing in systems change initiatives, the foundation centers a data-driven and community-informed approach as it partners with entities to improve health outcomes among under-resourced populations.  To learn more about MIHF visit https://www.midiowahealth.org.To learn more about UpLift visit https://upliftiowa.org/