Evaluating Environmental Justice and Public Housing in a Data-Rich Era

Abstract

We examined the spatial concentration of public housing, demographic indicators of low socioeconomic status, and environmental locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) in eight populous U.S. cities. Using the updated EJScreen database and its geographic information systems capabilities, we, as expected, found subsidized housing to be disproportionately colocated in areas with poor and underserved residents. Underground storage tanks and high traffic density were consistently associated with the location of public housing, whereas Superfund sites were located near public housing in only half of the cities in the study. Increasing our understanding of the variables typically used to measure environmental and social justice is important to expand the discussion around a broader set of environmental measures that might be more relevant to the communities that live near them without ignoring the traditional ones that have marked the early legacy of the environmental justice movement.