Across the United States, a growing number of families with low income are being displaced from their homes due to an inability to afford rising housing costs — which disrupts their access to three key federal assistance programs: Medicaid, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

That’s according to the results of a recent study by researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and UCLA.

“These types of social safety net programs are designed to protect children’s health and well-being during times of hardship, but our study findings show that their access may be disrupted precisely when they need them most,” says Kathryn Leifheit, who trained at Johns Hopkins before joining UCLA, and co-led the study, which appeared in Pediatrics, with Jacky Jennings, a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

Researchers found that of the 9,344 study participants (all children), 1,938 (21%) experienced a coverage gap in at least one of the social safety net programs. Among those, access to WIC was disrupted for 75%, access to SNAP was disrupted for 20% and Medicaid access was disrupted for 16%.

Compared to children who hadn’t moved, those who had a cost-driven move in the past year had 44% higher odds of disrupted access to WIC, SNAP or Medicaid. Researchers also found that moves not driven by cost were associated with a smaller, 14% increase in odds of disrupted access to the programs.

 “Given the high levels of financial strain and housing insecurity among low-income families during this period of record inflation, we are at a critical moment right now,” says Jennings. “There is an urgent need to take action to ensure access to these programs.”