Abstract
Few studies have examined the combined effects of affordability, housing conditions and neighborhood characteristics on the housing stability and health of low-income homeowners. We begin to address these gaps through a mixed-method study design that evaluates the Make-it-Home program (MiH) in Detroit, Michigan, aimed at helping low-income tenants become homeowners when their landlords lose their homes to tax foreclosure. We compare the ‘intervened group’ of MiH homeowners to a ‘comparison’ group of similarly situated households whose homes experience property tax foreclosure at the same time. The comparison group represents the likely outcomes for the participants had they not participated the program. Participants will be surveyed twice (intervened group), or once (comparison group) per year over a three-year period, regarding their housing and neighborhood conditions, health, life events, and socio-economic status, including income and employment. We will use property and neighborhood census data to further examine the conditions experienced. The findings for policy and program development from this study are timely as the nation faces a chronic shortage of affordable housing for both purchasers and renters. The results suggest ways to improve the MiH program and lay out approaches for researchers to navigate some of the complexities associated with this type of research.
Highlights
Accepted: 22 October 2021A growing body of public health research has considered the health effects of homeownership
We evaluated the Make-it-Home program (MiH), aimed at helping low-income tenants become homeowners when their landlords lose their homes to tax foreclosure
According to the information that the UCHC collected at the time of recruitment into either MiH or the effort to purchase houses at auction, most households in the MiH program and the comparison group had incomes at or below 30% of area median income, defined by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development as “extremely low income”
Summary
Accepted: 22 October 2021A growing body of public health research has considered the health effects of homeownership. Household income and education account for some of this association, homeownership is hypothesized to improve health and socioeconomic opportunities through wealth creation, residential stability, better housing conditions and neighborhood environments, and a greater sense of control and security [4]. Scholars have not thoroughly examined the health effects of homeownership across different subpopulations and geographical contexts [5], raising questions regarding for whom and under what conditions homeownership can benefit health. Variation in the access to homeownership has important implications for health equity, as the historic and contemporary discrimination in US housing and labor markets make Black and Latinx populations less able to attain and sustain homeownership, and less likely to realize its associated health benefits [6]. Lower home values reduce the positive association between homeownership and mortality at the neighborhood level, suggesting
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