Continued Tenancy in Public Housing and Youth Justice Outcomes: Evidence From New Zealand

In New Zealand, public housing can offer households a permanent home and a rental‐based approximation of owner‐occupation. Using a social determinants framework, this paper examines youth justice outcomes among individuals aged 14–24 years who were continuously housed in public housing between 2013 and 2022, including those who resided in different public housing units over time. We find that reported police offences, court charges and instances of victimisation were significantly lower in this cohort than in the general youth population, after controlling for a range of socio‐economic factors. The protective factors of public housing were greater for young people who had experienced prior involvement with Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) and for those living in households where at least one member had a history of offending. These results remained robust in a propensity score‐matched sample. In this way, public housing may act as a strong protective factor to the difficult circumstances experienced by this cohort, resulting in a lower incidence of justice sector interactions.