A Stable Home Is One of the Strongest Investments a Community Can Make

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At SENT, we often say that housing is not just shelter. It is health infrastructure. It is education infrastructure. It is economic infrastructure. Johnson-Betts Meadows was designed with this belief at its core.

Johnson-Betts Meadows is a 176-unit apartment community intentionally developed to strengthen outcomes for children, families, schools, and the broader Topeka community. Of these units, 101 will be supported by place-based housing vouchers, ensuring long-term affordability and stability for families who are most at risk of housing disruption.

This is not simply a housing project. It is a preventative investment.

Research at a Glance

What decades of research tell us about housing stability and children

  • Up to a year of learning lost: Children who experience eviction or frequent residential moves score significantly lower on cognitive and academic assessments, with impacts comparable to losing nearly a full year of schooling.
  • Middle childhood is a critical window: Moves between ages 6–12 are strongly associated with lower educational attainment, fewer hours worked, and lower earnings in adulthood.
  • Housing stability drives economic mobility: In a landmark study of more than 7,300 children, those younger than 13 whose families received housing vouchers earned an average of $3,477 more per year in adulthood and $302,000 more in total pretax lifetime earnings. They were also more likely to attend college, live in lower-poverty neighborhoods as adults, and, for girls, were less likely to become single parents.
  • Support during adolescence matters: Additional time spent in public housing or with housing choice voucher support between ages 13 and 18 is associated with higher earnings by the midtwenties, compared with similar youth in unsubsidized housing.
  • Stability pays off long term: Children in low-income households who received rental subsidies for more of their childhood experienced lasting economic benefits, including higher annual earnings in early adulthood and stronger attachment to the workforce.

These findings are consistent across economics, education, pediatric, and public health research and form the evidence base for Johnson-Betts Meadows.

Why Housing Stability Matters for Children

Research consistently shows that housing instability is one of the most disruptive forces in a child’s life. National and longitudinal studies summarized by the Urban Institute, the American Economic Association, and pediatric and public health journals find that eviction, overcrowding, and frequent residential moves during childhood are associated with measurable and lasting harm.

Across multiple studies, researchers have found that:

  • Children who experience eviction or frequent moves show significantly lower cognitive test scores, with some studies estimating impacts equivalent to losing nearly a full year of schooling.
  • Residential moves during middle childhood (roughly ages 6–12) are associated with lower educational attainment, reduced high school completion, and lower earnings in adulthood.
  • Frequent childhood moves are linked to higher rates of behavioral challenges, anxiety, and depression.
  • Housing instability and overcrowding are associated with worse physical health outcomes for children, including higher rates of asthma, developmental delays, and chronic stress-related conditions.

Educational disruption compounds these effects. Children who move frequently are more likely to change schools midyear, miss instructional time, and lose access to trusted teachers, counselors, and peers.

Johnson-Betts Meadows directly addresses these risks by offering:

  • Long-term, affordable housing that reduces forced moves
  • Safe, quality units that support physical and mental health
  • Stability that allows children to focus on learning and development rather than survival

When children have a stable place to live, their likelihood of staying on track academically, socially, and emotionally increases dramatically. Stability is not a luxury for children. It is a prerequisite for healthy development.

A Strong Foundation for Families

Families experiencing housing instability often face impossible tradeoffs between rent, food, transportation, health care, and child care. These pressures increase stress, strain relationships, and limit parents’ ability to plan for the future.

By pairing deeply affordable units with a mixed-income development, Johnson-Betts Meadows creates:

  • Predictable housing costs that allow families to budget and plan
  • Reduced financial stress, improving mental health and family stability
  • Proximity to schools, services, and employment opportunities

Stable housing allows parents to shift from crisis management to long-term decision-making. It creates space for workforce advancement, improved health, and stronger family systems.

Stronger Schools Through Housing Stability

Schools are deeply affected by housing instability, even though they do not control housing policy. Urban Institute research shows that frequent moves and eviction are strongly associated with lower test scores, higher absenteeism, and increased student turnover.

When families are forced to move frequently, schools experience:

  • Higher student turnover
  • Disrupted classroom learning environments
  • Increased strain on teachers and support staff
  • Lower overall academic performance

Johnson-Betts Meadows was designed to reduce school churn by anchoring families in one community. When children can remain in the same schools year after year, they are more likely to build strong relationships with teachers, maintain academic progress, and access consistent support services.

Housing stability supports:

  • Improved attendance
  • Stronger student-teacher relationships
  • More predictable classroom environments
  • Better long-term educational outcomes

Stable housing helps schools do what they do best: educate.

A Community-Level Return on Investment

Housing instability is expensive for communities. A wide body of research shows that frequent moves, eviction, and homelessness increase costs across health care, education, child welfare, and emergency systems.

Studies published in Health Affairs, Pediatrics, and public policy journals find that children in unstable housing situations are more likely to require emergency medical care, experience mental health crises, and interact with child welfare systems. Long-term research also links childhood housing instability to lower adult earnings and reduced workforce participation, which limits local economic growth.

Preventative, stable housing is far more cost-effective than responding to repeated emergencies.

Johnson-Betts Meadows delivers community-wide benefits by:

  • Reducing reliance on emergency housing, health care, and crisis services
  • Improving neighborhood stability and safety
  • Supporting workforce participation and long-term earnings
  • Strengthening educational attainment and public system efficiency

By integrating subsidized units within a larger mixed-income community, the development also avoids the concentration of poverty and supports social cohesion and neighborhood health.

Why Place-Based Vouchers Matter

The use of place-based vouchers is a critical component of this model. Unlike tenant-based vouchers that can be lost or become unusable due to market pressures, place-based vouchers ensure that affordability remains attached to the unit over time.

This means:

  • Long-term affordability is protected
  • Families are shielded from sudden rent spikes
  • Housing stability is preserved even in a changing market

For children, this consistency matters. It means fewer moves, fewer school changes, and a greater chance to grow up in a stable environment.

Moving Neighborhoods From Instability to Health

Johnson-Betts Meadows aligns with the City of Topeka’s Neighborhood Health Framework, which recognizes that communities move along a continuum from intensive care to stability to health. Housing stability is one of the primary drivers that allows neighborhoods to move forward on this continuum.

By reducing displacement, supporting families, and strengthening schools, Johnson-Betts Meadows contributes to:

  • Healthier children
  • Stronger families
  • More resilient schools
  • A more stable and thriving community

Creating a Place That Feels Like Home

Johnson-Betts Meadows is also being designed with intention around belonging and dignity. In a small but meaningful nod to Topeka’s history, the community clubhouse will include a fireplace.

At the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, non-working fireplaces were intentionally included in classrooms to help children feel at home as they entered newly integrated schools. The fireplaces were not about heat. They were about comfort, safety, and signaling to children that they belonged in that space.

The fireplace at Johnson-Betts Meadows carries that same spirit. It reflects a belief that children and families deserve environments that feel welcoming, stable, and human—not institutional or temporary.

A Shared Win for Topeka

Johnson-Betts Meadows represents a shared commitment to the future of Topeka. It reflects the belief that when children are stable, families thrive. When families thrive, schools succeed. When schools succeed, communities grow stronger.

This project is not about housing units alone. It is about creating the conditions where children can learn, families can plan, and neighborhoods can flourish.

That is why Johnson-Betts Meadows is such a strong investment for our community—today and for generations to come.

Research Sources

This page draws on a large body of peer-reviewed research and policy analysis. For readability, citations are provided as expandable references. Readers who want to go deeper can explore the full studies below.

Together, this research consistently shows that stable, affordable housing improves child development, strengthens families, supports schools, and delivers long-term economic and health benefits for communities.

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