Housing Residents Research Articles

Sense of Community and Social Participation Underlying Active Aging Among Senior Housing Residents.

Sense of community (SoC) and social participation are considered resources for active aging but there is sparse empirical knowledge on the topic. We investigated these associations among senior housing residents. Data were derived from the cross-sectional BoAktiv senior housing survey (N = 278). Active aging was measured with the (blinded) Active Aging scale including subscales of will, ability, and possibility to act, and the frequency of activity. SoC was assessed with the revised Sense of Community Index and social participation was self-reported. Data were analyzed with linear regression and stratified by sex. We found that in both men and women, SoC and social participation were associated with the will to act and frequency of activity subscores. Additionally, SoC was associated with the active aging total score. The associations were slightly stronger in men than in women. These findings suggest that strengthening social engagement supports senior housing residents' active aging.

How Do Helping Behaviors Change over the First Six Months for Sober Living House Residents?

How Do Helping Behaviors Change over the First Six Months for Sober Living House Residents?

Benefits of Helping in Three Contexts for Maintaining Recovery Among Sober Living House Residents

Benefits of Helping in Three Contexts for Maintaining Recovery Among Sober Living House Residents

Perceptions of the Combining HIV Services and Microenterprise for Sustainable Recovery (CHIMES) Intervention for Sober House Residents in Tanzania: A Qualitative Study

Perceptions of the Combining HIV Services and Microenterprise for Sustainable Recovery (CHIMES) Intervention for Sober House Residents in Tanzania: A Qualitative Study

Cannabis is not a Substitute for Other Drugs Among Sober Living House Residents

Cannabis is not a Substitute for Other Drugs Among Sober Living House Residents

Formative Qualitative Research Informs Tailoring SNAP-Ed Curriculum for Transitional Housing Residents.

To modify the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education curriculum based on formative research conducted at a homeless resource center. Researchers interviewed 4 administrators/staff and 5 transitional housing residents. We used a content analysis approach to independently code transcripts, reconcile differences, and identify themes. We adapted the Create Better Health curriculum using these data. Curriculum adaptations included incorporating microwave-friendly recipes because of limited cooking facilities, providing strategies for making healthy food choices at facility-provided meals and convenience/dollar stores frequented by residents, and encouraging residents to exercise at their comfort levels because of common physical limitations. Classes located outside transitional housing units were planned for 60 minutes before and after mealtimes. Adapting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education curriculum to meet the unique needs of transitional housing residents may enable healthy behavioral changes. Further research is required to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of this revised curriculum.

Prevalence and Correlates of Social Isolation Among Older Adults in Subsidized Housing.

Social isolation is an increasing public health concern. Older residents in subsidized housing may be susceptible to isolation given high rates of chronic illness/disabilities, low income, and living alone. This cross-sectional study examined correlates of social isolation among over 3,000 older adults from nearly 100 subsidized housing communities across the US. Respondent Lubben Social Network Scale-6 scores, demographic data, and health information were collected in 2019 by a non-profit housing organization and linked to the Neighborhood Atlas Area Deprivation Index. Associations between social isolation and other variables were assessed using logistic regression. The mean respondent age was 75.9 years; 67% were female, 33% were male, 38.8% were white, 15.5% were Black, 7.8% were Hispanic, and 27.5% were Asian. Among all respondents, 29.8% were isolated. Adjusting for demographics, multi-level logistic regressions demonstrated significant associations between isolation and poor self-rated health, functional impairment, mental health distress, and knowing/relying on fewer neighbors. This study sheds light on the prevalence and correlates of social isolation among older adults who live in subsidized housing managed by a large non-profit housing organization. The findings from this study suggest that contextual and structural factors must be further investigated to better understand social isolation among older subsidized housing residents. Ultimately, this work informs efforts to identify socially isolated older adults and evidence-based interventions to address this public health concern.

Chronic disease prevalence and preventive care among Ontario social housing residents compared with the general population: a population-based cohort study

BackgroundOlder adults living in social housing report poor health and access to healthcare services. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of chronic diseases, influenza vaccination and cancer screenings among...

The Effect of Personal Selling of Iconnet Products on the Buying Interest of Housing Residents in Medan City

Technology has influenced humans in their daily lives. The improvement of technological developments is able to affect aspects of life that cannot be separated from the use of the internet. It is seen in the last 5 years that the use of technology in Indonesia has grown rapidly, marked by the emergence of many internet service providers. The increase in household internet users is one of the phenomena that can be used by ICON+ to be able to attract new users. This target market will try to find alternative internet providers that can meet the needs of the internet in households at affordable prices. This study aims to measure the influence of personal selling carried out by ICON+ sales on the buying interest of people in Medan housing. This study is a quantitative research with a simple linear regression method from a total of 350 respondents. The results of this study stated that personal selling had an effect on the buying interest of residents in Medan city housing with the influence of the independent variable on the bound variable of 52.2% while the remaining 47.8% was influenced by other factors outside this study.

The symbolic meanings and experience of place among residents in public housing awaiting relocation in Baltimore, Maryland

ABSTRACT Public housing in the United States is often depicted as areas of decay and using racialized tropes about low-income communities of color. Despite these negative portrayals, residents of public housing often characterize their place as meaningful homes where they engage in place-making and community-building to challenge their social marginalization. The presence of strong connections to community and place among residents may help explain why public housing redevelopment programs focused on demolition and forced relocation have led to mixed results for improved mental and social well-being. This study explores how residents of a predominately Black public housing community undergoing redevelopment construct meanings of place and how these meanings influence their well-being and perceptions of redevelopment. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 29 adults relocating from a public housing site in Baltimore, Maryland, and showcased how the social conditions of public housing intersect with individual characteristics, life experiences, and personal desires to dictate residents’ notions of home, attachments to place and community, and experiences with stigma before relocation. Our findings demonstrate how residents’ experiences with redevelopment and relocating can vary depending on their meanings of place, emphasizing the need to elevate residents’ experiential knowledge in housing interventions to promote individual and community health.

Speculative Criminality at Home: Bypassing Tenant Rights Through Police Surveillance in Detroit’s Rental Housing

In 2016, Detroit, Michigan’s police department piloted a city-wide public-private-community video surveillance program called Project Green Light (PGL). Businesses that host the service, typically gas stations and convenience stores, receive priority response times for emergency dispatch calls, artificially decreasing 911 response times in a city with historically low emergency response capacity. This has led to many senior care homes with medically vulnerable residents to subscribe to PGL, as well as landlords of residential apartment buildings. While the program has been identified as a marker of gentrification by housing and anti-surveillance activists and residents, it has also raised concern about perpetuating the criminalization of Black Detroiters, specifically those living in rental housing that hosts the technology. In a city that is rapidly evolving through private, institutional, and public partnership developments while elected officials espouse to maintain racial and economic equity as core values of Detroit’s upcoming master planning process, the lack of foresight of the impact of surveillance tech is striking. The article’s focus is on surveillance technology as a defining element of contemporary urban development which enacts both a forbearance and expansion of rights through the application of technology to property relations. Relying on the automation of policing and racially biased artificial intelligence perpetuates criminality based on race, class, and perceived gender while additionally tying those experiences to the bundle of rights associated with the ownership of property.

Space Syntax Analysis of Gated Communities in Jordan: Examining Urban Connectivity and Social Impact

The trend of gated communities is becoming the new alternative housing for the high-end residents of Jordan, reflecting global patterns of urbanisation. However, their emergence on the outskirts of Amman on vacant lands requires an early proactive planning approach to ensure their development in response to the growth of the surrounding areas, fostering an integrated urban fabric. This article examines whether gated communities contribute to urban discontinuity and lead to social segregation. The study employs a space syntax analysis on two cases in Amman to assess their integration, accessibility, and navigability to address the study’s key questions related to its integration, design implications, and spatial layout. Findings reveal significant spatial segregation, with low levels of integration and high step depth values, indicating potential challenges in navigation, connectivity, residents’ mobility, accessibility, and safety. The article suggests the importance of re-evaluating the design and planning approaches for these developments to promote organic townscape growth to ensure smooth integration with the surroundings.

The influence of openings on thermal comfort in the residential units of Sub-Communal RISHA, Mojo Surakarta

Abstract Temporary Housing Sub-Communal RISHA (Healthy Simple Instant House) is a temporary housing facility located in Surakarta, one of the housing development solutions for slum settlements. Sub-Communal RISHA was built to provide housing for residents affected by the development of the Bengawan Solo Riverbanks. This study was conducted to identify the effect of openings on the thermal comfort of the space in residential units and provide a recommendation to improve thermal comfort as an adaptation to environmental conditions affected by global warming. With a relatively small residential unit area, thermal comfort is essential so that residents remain comfortable in their activities and the house becomes healthier. The method combines observation, field measurements, and simulations using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) software. The study results stated that thermal comfort in residential units in Sub-Communal RISHA is in the uncomfortable category. This condition can lead to health issues and reduced productivity, where openings affect the flow of wind entering the room by placing the inlet and outlet, not facing each other, at different elevations, and the outlet area is larger than the inlet.

Effects of the Customized Plant Education in the Rooftop Garden of Public Rental Housing for Enhancing Sustainable Living of the Elderlies

Background and objective: This study explores the effects of customized plant education on the sustainable living capacity of elderly residents in public rental housing. The housing in this study is the planned elderly residence with a community rooftop garden as the main community place, and the education program was developed based on the garden.Methods: Ten residents participated in the education, and the effects were measured through pre- and post-interviews. The site and elder residents’ specific 2 hours education program was developed and conducted once a week for a month.Results: The recognition of plants improved, which led to an increase in interest in plants and garden. Moreover, the education enhanced social exchanges among residents and promoted the willingness to participation in garden activities.Conclusion: These results suggested that the plant education can enhance residents' attachment to the garden, as well as their cognitive, emotional, and social capacities, thereby enabling them to live in the community housing longer.

The Built Environment, PTSD Symptoms, and Tobacco Use among Permanent Supportive Housing Residents.

50% of permanent supportive housing (PSH) residents in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, and tobacco-related mortality is their number one cause of death. Over 30% of PSH residents have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and many perceive their built environment (e.g., housing) as inadequate for mental and physical health recovery. It is unknown whether built environment factors moderate the relationship between PTSD and tobacco use among PSH residents. We used baseline data from 400 participants in a smoke-free home intervention in PSH sites in the San Francisco Bay Area between 2022 and 2024. We explored whether perceived housing quality and perceived neighborhood safety moderated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and cigarettes per day (CPD) using linear mixed models. 62.8% of the participants were male, 41.8% were Black, 30.5% screened positive for PTSD, 54.3% rated their housing as average/poor, and the mean neighborhood safety score was 3.4 (SD 0.9). Mean CPD was significantly higher in participants with PTSD compared to those without PTSD among participants who rated their housing as good/excellent (5.1; 95% CI: 2.7, 7.5) or their neighborhood as safer (7.8; 95% CI: 2.8, 12.8). Mean CPD was not significantly different between those with and without PTSD among participants who rated their housing as average/poor or their neighborhood as less safe. Perceived housing quality and neighborhood safety moderated the association between PTSD symptoms and CPD. Findings have implications for developing trauma-informed, multi-level interventions for tobacco use that combine individually directed approaches with those that consider the built environment.

Applying a systems perspective to understand the health effects of holistic housing renovation in a deprived neighbourhood in the Netherlands: Development of a causal loop diagram

Whereas ‘systems thinking’ rapidly becomes popular in public health, and whereas many housing interventions have been evaluated in ‘traditional ways’, we aim at moving the field further by describing the application of a Causal Loop Diagram for the purpose of the evaluation of a complex public health intervention: holistic housing renovation. Holistic housing renovations have the potential to reduce health inequalities by addressing physical housing issues and socioeconomic problems of residents in social housing in deprived neighbourhoods. We developed a Causal Loop Diagram, combining perspectives from stakeholders and scientific literature, visualizing the complex dynamics via which holistic housing renovations can impact health of residents in social housing. We identified six interconnected mechanisms which potentially generate health effects in different time frames, with negative effects primarily occurring in the short term, while positive health effects may take longer to manifest. Our paper shows how constructing a CLD can help to assess effectiveness of housing interventions by formulating hypotheses about their impact.

A Study on the Factors Influencing Residents' Subjective Well-being through Digital Design in Age-Friendly Housing – Focusing on Residents of Age-Friendly Housing in Guangzhou, China –

A Study on the Factors Influencing Residents' Subjective Well-being through Digital Design in Age-Friendly Housing – Focusing on Residents of Age-Friendly Housing in Guangzhou, China –

‘Although it's my home, it's not my house’ – Exploring impacts of retrofits with social housing residents

The UK is currently experiencing a cost-of-living crisis that is impacting access to affordable energy, which is worsening energy poverty issues. While the crisis continues, policymakers are attempting to meet climate change goals. Our paper discusses the ways in which energy poverty and energy justice are relevant to the shift to decarbonise the social housing sector. We use a case study of 22 interviews of social housing residents on an estate in the North West of England to problematise how retrofitting social housing to decrease energy consumption impacts residents' access to energy justice. Our work contributes to the emerging concept of retrofit justice, and we assess how the forms of tripartite energy justice occur through the retrofit project, furthering debates on retrofit justice. We find that while the housing provider made attempts to involve residents in retrofit planning, many residents were disengaged from the process due to disenfranchisement and misrecognition issues, contributing to limited procedural and recognition justice. We also found that while retrofits increased the energy efficiency of the buildings, this could not solve structural problems causing energy poverty, reducing the retrofit's capacity to deliver distributive energy justice. Retrofit is a hugely important aspect of meeting climate change goals, but energy poverty cannot be adequately challenged without structural changes to the electricity market. Our paper is based on a UK case study, but the findings are relevant to international conceptual debates around retrofit and energy justice and can be useful for any national context retrofitting their social housing stock.

Building Community Facilities and Forming Social Capital in Public Rental Housing Complexes in Seoul, Korea

This study analyzed the relationship between the use of community facilities and social capital in public rental housing complexes in Seoul, Korea. Since built environment research is particularly vulnerable to self-selection bias resulting from attitudes toward neighborly interactions, the behavioral–attitudinal dissonance method was used to assess whether the use of community facilities independently affects social capital, considering the cognitive and structural dimensions of social capital and types of public rental housing to account for socioeconomic diversity. The findings showed that community facility usage positively influences social capital formation among public rental housing residents, primarily those with a positive attitude toward neighborly interactions. Furthermore, community facility usage has a more pronounced effect on forming close neighborhoods compared with other elements of social capital. Finally, community facility usage had less impact on social capital formation among residents of socially mixed public rental housing compared with independent public rental housing.

Inclusionary housing policy and practice in South African cities: planning as a spatial transformation tool

AbstractGlobally, housing forms an integral part of accessing the wide range opportunities that cities offer, however, inequality can be exacerbated when significant segments of the inhabitants are excluded from the real estate market or through inaction by the state. The need for affordable housing in cities with hyper-property markets is of global concern for public sector authorities that are pursuing goals of socially just and economically inclusive cities. In the global south, inclusionary housing policies and associated practices have emerged as important tools to increase access for those excluded from the opportunities available in towns and cities. In South Africa, the post-1994 democratic state has continued with the apartheid era practice of providing subsidised housing for the majority urban residents on the outskirts of towns and cities, thereby further entrenching poverty traps and racially based separate developments. Contrary to practice, the state’s well-documented policy position is to reverse the legacy of apartheid through spatial transformation so that cities and towns become economically more inclusive and socially just. It is argued that this requires prioritising the provision of affordable housing in urban centres of towns and cities that offer meaningful working, residing, shopping, recreational and other social opportunities. Although inclusionary housing policy has emerged internationally as an important mechanism to spatially transform urban areas, this forms only one component of a wider range of other possible public interventions. These framework mechanisms could include broader housing development policies, legislation and programmes as well as the urban development policies, spatial planning and land use management practices and incentives. Other incentives that can be used as leverage include the use of publicly owned property (land and buildings), capital infrastructure and development incentives. The public sector can offer both direct and indirect financial assistance and tax incentives to support an inclusionary housing policy. Critically, this should be contingent on the public sector understanding the feasibility, risk and benefits associated with housing projects pursued by private sector real estate developers.