How are homes and health related?
- Low income housing often doesn’t meet safety standards.
- inadequate regulation is another issue
- Housing itself has psychological and psychosocial effects
Name the 6 vectors of poor health related to housing
- Poor ventilation
- Poor storage
- Overcrowding
- Failure to meet safety standards
- Lead-based paints
- Heating & air conditioning
What are the outcomes of the 6 vectors?
- Communicable disease
- Respiratory disease
- Stress
How are poor health and homelessness related?
- Poor health leads to low income which is often associated with homelessness
What causes increased homelessness?
- Housing boom is responsible for increasing homelessness
- Boom —> Quickly rising housing markets and increases in rent
- It’s a Canadian problem
Describe the link between housing costs and health
30%+ of disposable income on housing leads to food insecurity
What are 2 ways that neighbourhoods are connected to individual level health outcomes?
- Area level SE is connected to individual level health outcomes
- Social cohesion is another factor.
What are 4 reasons that area characteristics are important?
- Examples of opportunity ‘structures’
- Neighbourhood socioeconomic status
- ‘Deprivation amplification’
- Solutions require thoughtful design, not just $$
How does the materialist perspective view opportunity structures?
- Materialist POV: neighborhood characteristics can be resources or opportunities for residents.
What are the characteristics of disordered neighborhoods?
Poorly functioning public services, graffiti, and crime
Describe the benefits of access to green space
Access to green spaces = reduce stress, blood pressure, anxiety and depression.
What are the benefits of high neighbourhood stability?
- High levels of neighborhood stability provide a buffering effect.
- Added benefits of personal identity and sense of belonging.
What are the 3 factors that create improved activity levels in a neighbourhood?
- Access to recreational facilities, parks & other urban design features
- Transport policies
- Affordability and accessibility of public transportation
Describe inactivity and health
- Urban design interest has been on increasing pop. activity levels.
- Inactivity can lead to many bad health outcomes, whereas for activity the opposite is true.
- Heavily influenced by the community a person lives in.
What are the 10 modern factors that shape the quality of housing?
- Ventilation
- heating and cooling
- food storage and preparation capabilities
- presence of toxins
- washing and toilet facilities
- number of rooms/amount of space for the number of occupants
- neighborhood variables
- opportunity structure of the area
- security
- the standard of living of neighbours.
What is an example of an unhelpful policy solution?
- Dropping cash into a place doesn’t necessarily help
Why is this chapter important?
- Chapter 10 shows how important and powerful multi-level analysis is
Why is housing a multi-dimensional problem?
- Observable impacts on physical, mental health
- Policy implications are palpable
- Social cohesion, yes, but also collective action
What are some adverse health outcomes associated with homelessness?
exposure to elements, increased stress, substance abuse etc.
Why do some question homelessness as a social determinant of health?
Methodological issues
A clear case nevertheless
What are some of the mechanisms by which homelessness is associated with poor health?
Uptake of substance use
Victimization to violence
Limited access to services
The ‘poverty trap’
What are the outcomes of the mechanisms of homelessness?
25% female
40% are assaulted each year
How prevalent is homelessness?
Prevalence of homelessness
- 30,000 on any given night
- 250,000 over lifetime
Describe the macroeconomic causes of homelessness
Macroeconomic causes
- Changes in welfare structure, cuts
- Worsening vacancy rates
- Housing prices
