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Improving Philadelphia’s rental regulatory and housing support systems: a strategic policy & health impact assessment
Improving Philadelphia’s rental regulatory and housing support systems: a strategic policy & health impact assessment
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Urban Institute research report
- Author(s):
- Schilling, Joseph, author
Walker, Fay, (Of Urban Institute), author
Nunna, Tanay, author
Stacy, Christina, author - Contributor(s):
- Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, September 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Housing Quality
Social Determinants of Health -- legislation & jurisprudence
Social Mobility
Philadelphia - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This strategic policy health impact assessment (HIA) is based on the well-established concept that substandard housing conditions can have negative impacts on physical and mental health and improving the quality of rental housing can lead to improved individual and community health outcomes. The importance of responding to this connection is particularly acute in Philadelphia, a high-poverty city with poor health outcomes. Philadelphians have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than the national average. At least one in five Philadelphia children suffers from asthma—a health condition closely tied to housing conditions—and this is more than twice the national average. When confronted with unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions, the growing gap between housing costs and household income can pose significant barriers for Philadelphia renters seeking safe and affordable housing. Philadelphia has the highest share of residents experiencing housing cost burden (i.e., spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing) among the 10 largest cities in the country, including 54 percent of all renters. The inherent nature of Health Impact Assessments provides the ideal analytic framework and collaborative process to explore how Philadelphia could expand and connect its rental regulatory systems to improve individual and community health. Building upon recent research about how Philadelphia regulates rental housing, our team worked closely with local officials to gather and analyze local housing and health data; directly engaged with local stakeholders through interviews, focus groups, and a project advisory group to understand the housing and health landscape in the city; and researched promising practices in other cities that are pursuing innovative approaches to housing code enforcement. This HIA both describes the current state and offers suggestions for improving the quality of the city’s rental housing stock, thereby also improving individual and community health. Although the recommendations primarily focus on the approach to housing code enforcement, we also offer suggestions for further collaboration and coordination across the broader housing and health ecosystem.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (xi, 94 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918503477606676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918503477606676