Housing Policy and Practice
Housing and neighborhood conditions are inextricably linked to health and wellbeing.
Housing helps catalyze the physical, economic, and social conditions a community needs to help its members thrive.
Creating safe, affordable, and equitable housing helps everyone in a community reach their best possible health and wellbeing. The pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of housing in promoting good health. This holds true for people across the country—in communities large and small, rural and urban.
Solutions to housing inequities exist, thanks to the efforts of community members, researchers, policymakers and more. Working together to pursue racially equitable housing policies and lending practices that align with resident needs is a key to shaping healthier communities where everyone can thrive.
Housing and Health
Housing inequities are being driven in part by the growing gap between wages and housing costs and discrimination in housing policies and practices. The February 2024 issue of Health Affairs highlights equitable, evidence-based strategies for improving housing stability, homelessness prevention, and population health outcomes nationwide.