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Housing, Neighborhoods, and Health

Faculty in the Institute are currently researching a number of issues related to housing, neighborhoods and health. In work led by Craig Pollack and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Institutes of Health, faculty are examining the effects of housing mobility programs that enable families to move from areas of concentrated poverty.

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Resources and Publications

Research Findings:  

A new research brief explains how community land trusts, nonprofits that acquire land and develop housing which are sold at discounted rates, may improve the health and well-being of lower income households.

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Research Findings:  

Researchers found young children whose household received a housing voucher were admitted to the hospital fewer times and incurred lower hospital costs in the subsequent two decades than children whose households did not receive housing vouchers.

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Spotlight Feature

As evidence grows that housing mobility programs can vastly improve residents’ life trajectories, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Institute for Health and Social Policy based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a network of experts released a report to help inform and guide supplementary research on the new Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Mobility Demonstration Program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

The Report of the Housing Mobility Research Road Map Project provides research considerations for the HCV Mobility Demonstration Program, which will begin funding nine public housing agencies in Spring 2021 to provide housing vouchers and mobility services to help families move to lower-poverty neighborhoods. Housing mobility programs have the potential to disrupt historic patterns of segregation and increase families’ economic mobility. As these programs are implemented, there will be opportunities for research to inform a broad range of public policies including health, education, and housing policy.