Housing and Health: A Social Ecological Perspective on the US Foreclosure Crisis

Abstract

This study adds to the literature linking housing and health by illustrating how poor health can increase the risk of foreclosure, and how the threat of foreclosure can negatively affect mental health. Our findings support the social ecological model of health and housing disparities and point to health care, employment, and social welfare policies as fundamental social causes that place populations at risk for foreclosure and illness. Medical debt, illness and injury, lack of adequate health insurance, as well as caring for extended family are triggers for mortgage delinquency and risk of home loss. Poor health becomes a key point of entry into mortgage delinquency and foreclosure. Changes in mental health may result from the stress and anxiety of financial hardship, from efforts to remedy the situation, and from loss of ontological security. These effects may worsen prospects for avoiding foreclosure by impairing decision-making, straining marriages to the point of divorce, and reducing homeowners’ earning capacities. These findings are based on a secondary analysis of data from 14 focus groups conducted with low- and moderate-income homeowners threatened with foreclosure and foreclosure intervention professionals in five cities in the USA.