Improvement In Housing Quality Research Articles

A rising tide lifts all homes? Housing consumption trends for low-income households since the 1980s

This study analyzes patterns of housing consumption and expenditures among low-income households since 1985. For households in the bottom income quintile, real monthly housing expenditures have risen from $605 to $1,045. However, these increased expenditures partially reflect housing quantity improvements, including more square footage, more rooms, and larger lot sizes. The data also show a marked improvement in housing quality, such as fewer sagging roofs, broken appliances, rodents, and peeling paint. The housing quality for low-income households improved across all 35 indicators we can measure. These quality improvements equate to between a 34 to 43 percent increase in housing consumption and suggest that a typical low-income household in 2021 experiences housing quality equivalent to the average national household in 1985. Though relative housing consumption has remained similar, this “rising tide” of housing may have additional benefits for the well-being of families and children living in better housing.

Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?

This paper seeks to investigate the role of housing quality on the relationship between maternal education and child malnutrition using the 2018 Cameroonian demographic and health survey. We employed the control function modelling and the non-self-cluster mean/proportion identification strategies to address potential endogeneity and sample selection concerns. Results indicate that: (a) women with less than ten years of schooling are more likely to have malnourished children than their counterparts with more years; (b) a percentage improvement in housing quality reduces the risk of a child being malnourished by about nine percentage points, and enhances the likelihood that mother's education will reduce child malnutrition; and (c) the mediation role of housing quality on the mother's education-child nutrition nexus is significant overall, but heterogeneous when we consider the different agroecological zones. These findings suggest the need for policy interventions on housing quality as a possible channel to enhance the direct effect of maternal education in reducing the probability of child malnutrition, and the potency of this channel would be increased if agroecological and cultural specificities are accounted for.

Gentrification and Air Quality in a Large Urban County in the United States

Introduction: Increases in industrialization and manufacturing have led to worsening pollution in some components of air quality. In addition, gentrification is occurring in large cities throughout the world. As these socioeconomic and demographic changes occur, there have been no studies examining the association of gentrification with air quality. To investigate this association, we studied the trends of gentrification, changes in racial distribution and changes in air quality in each zip code of a large urban county over a 40-year period. Methods: We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study over 40 years in Wayne County, Michigan using socioeconomic and demographic data from the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) and air quality data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To assess gentrification, longitudinal analyses were performed to examine median household income, percentage with a college education, median housing value, median gross rent and employment level. The racial distribution was evaluated in each zip code during the time period. Gentrification was studied in relation to air quality using nonparametric 2-sample Wilcon-Mann-Whitney tests and Binomial Generalized Linear Regression models. Results: Although air quality improved overall over the 40-year period, there was a lesser rate of improvement in gentrified areas. Furthermore, gentrification was strongly associated with racial distribution. The most substantial gentrification occurred from 2010 to 2020, in which a specific cluster of adjacent zip codes in downtown Detroit experienced intense gentrification and a drop in the percentage of African-American residents. Conclusions: Gentrified areas seem to have a less pronounced improvement in air quality over time. This reduction in air quality improvement is likely associated with demolitions and the construction of new buildings, such as sporting arenas and accompanying traffic density. Gentrification is also strongly associated with an increase in non-minority residents in an area. Although previous definitions of gentrification in the literature have not included racial distribution, we suggest that future definitions should include this metric given the strong association. Minority residents who are displaced as a result of gentrification do not experience the improvements in housing quality, accessibility to healthy foods and other associations of gentrification.

Physical and mental health impacts of housing improvement: A quasi-experimental evaluation of in-situ slum redevelopment in India

The present study conducted a quasi-experimental, pre-post evaluation to investigate the influence of housing redevelopment of informal settlements on residents’ health and well-being and to identify the role of improvement in housing quality in health impacts. In total 125 women from three housing settlements in India (intervention and wait-listed control groups) participated in the study before and after redevelopment of their settlements. In the intervention group, an informal settlement housing was replaced with low-height apartment-style housing at the same site, resulting in improved housing quality. The study measured physical health, mental health, and quality of life scores of women before and after housing redevelopment, and concurrent housing quality improvement, and compared them to a wait-listed informal settlement. The health and quality of life scores improve two-and-a half years post-redevelopment in the intervention group in comparison to their pre-redevelopment scores. Health also improved in the wait-listed group but only for a subgroup which saw housing quality improvement. Further analysis shows that improvement in housing quality explains the change in health post-redevelopment, thus providing evidence for salutary impacts of improving housing quality.

Mechanisms to Improve Health Through Community Land Trusts.

Community land trusts (CLTs) provide long-term affordable housing and offer a range of mechanisms that may improve the health and well-being of low-income households. We sought to elucidate these mechanisms through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of CLT staff and residents across the USA. Stakeholders most frequently identified improvements in mental health that come through increased housing stability and affordability. Other factors-including the ways that CLTs promote wealth generation, improvements in housing quality and neighborhood amenities, services and partnerships with healthcare organizations, and democratic governance-were raised by respondents though less frequently tied to health benefits. CLTs represent a promising area for future research on housing's impact on health.

Child Health and Neighborhood Conditions: Results from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment

Using data from the Moving to Opportunity randomized housing voucher experiment, we estimate the direct effects of housing and neighborhood quality on child health. We show that, five years after random assignment, housing mobility has little impact on overall health status, asthma, injuries, and body mass index. The few effects that we observe imply that being offered a voucher through the program might worsen some aspects of child health, despite significant improvements in housing quality, nutrition and exercise, and neighborhood safety. Our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that neighborhood conditions explain much of the widely-cited income gradient in child health.

Child Health and Neighborhood Conditions

Abstract Using data from the Moving to Opportunity randomized housing voucher experiment, we estimate the direct effects of housing and neighborhood quality on child health. We show that, five years after random assignment, housing mobility has little impact on overall health status, asthma, injuries, and body mass index. The few effects that we observe imply that being offered a voucher through the program might worsen some aspects of child health, despite significant improvements in housing quality, nutrition and exercise, and neighborhood safety. Our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that neighborhood conditions explain much of the widely-cited income gradient in child health.

Changes in the Consumption, Income, and Well-Being of Single Mother Headed Families

We investigate well-being changes for single mother headed families targeted by recent tax and welfare reforms. Measured income changes sharply differ from consumption changes. We examine disaggregated consumption, time use, and health insurance coverage. Increases in housing and transportation spending mostly account for the rise in consumption in the bottom quintiles. We find modest improvement in housing quality, but the evidence is less strong at the very bottom. The consumption of nonmarket time for those in the bottom half of the consumption distribution falls sharply, indicating a loss in utility for those families if nonmarket time is valued above $3 per hour. (JEL D12, I31, I32, J12, J16)

The Real Story of Housing Prices in Australia from 1970 to 2003

Despite the popular and public policy interest in housing prices, there have been few reliable published data for housing prices in Australia. In this article we aim to provide an authoritative account of prices for houses and apartments (units) in Australia from 1970 to 2003. Where possible we draw on data from land title offices or on studies that draw on these data, but we also draw on supplementary data in some cases. The first part of the article describes the major data sources of Australian house prices. The main body of the article provides our best estimates of median house and unit prices and real price indices in the capital cities and in the rest of Australia along with explanations for their derivations. We also estimate how improvements in housing quality have influenced real house prices.

Reconstructing social capital in a poor urban settlement: the Integral Improvement Programme in Barrio San Jorge

This paper describes how the continuous support provided by an external team over a ten year period in a lowincome informal settlement in Buenos Aires (Barrio San Jorge) resulted in a development process which helped to improve living conditions, to change the inhabitants' relationship with society and to reduce the deprivations normally associated with low income. Over time, and with each new initiative seeking to build on the momentum achieved by previous initiatives, considerable improvements have been achieved, including improvements in housing quality, access roads, land tenure and provision for water and sanitation and for child health and development. Perhaps as important has been the development of a representative community organization within the barrio since no such organization had existed previously. This, in turn, has helped change the relationship of this settlement's inhabitants with the rest of society - the settlement is no longer “illegal” as the inhabitants are acquiring legal tenure of the land on which they live, as provision for water and sanitation is now managed by the official utilities and as an engagement has developed between the inhabitants and government agencies at municipal and other levels. This case study suggests that many low-income illegal settlements need a long and continuous support programme to allow the many kinds of deprivation and illegality their inhabitants face to be addressed. Poverty is not “solved” through one or two quick, sectoral interventions. Action is needed on many fronts. But this case study also shows the important catalytic role that international funds can have in helping low-income communities develop their own representative organizations. This is important for allowing them to address their own problems but it is also central to them being able to successfully negotiate with their own local governments and utilities for the infrastructure and services to which they are entitled.

Reconstructing social capital in a poor urban settlement: the Integral Improvement Programme in Barrio San Jorge

This paper describes how the continuous support provided by an external team over a ten year period in a lowincome informal settlement in Buenos Aires (Barrio San Jorge) resulted in a development process which helped to improve living conditions, to change the inhabitants' relationship with society and to reduce the deprivations normally associated with low income. Over time, and with each new initiative seeking to build on the momentum achieved by previous initiatives, considerable improvements have been achieved, including improvements in housing quality, access roads, land tenure and provision for water and sanitation and for child health and development. Perhaps as important has been the development of a representative community organization within the barrio since no such organization had existed previously. This, in turn, has helped change the relationship of this settlement's inhabitants with the rest of society - the settlement is no longer “illegal” as the inhabitants are acquiring legal tenure of the land on which they live, as provision for water and sanitation is now managed by the official utilities and as an engagement has developed between the inhabitants and government agencies at municipal and other levels. This case study suggests that many low-income illegal settlements need a long and continuous support programme to allow the many kinds of deprivation and illegality their inhabitants face to be addressed. Poverty is not “solved” through one or two quick, sectoral interventions. Action is needed on many fronts. But this case study also shows the important catalytic role that international funds can have in helping low-income communities develop their own representative organizations. This is important for allowing them to address their own problems but it is also central to them being able to successfully negotiate with their own local governments and utilities for the infrastructure and services to which they are entitled.

The Effects of Extended Families and Marital Status on Housing Consumption by Black Female-Headed Households

This study examines factors affecting the housing consumption of households headed by black women. The investigation focuses particular attention on the extent to which marital status and household composition, especially extended family configurations, influence the quality of housing consumed. The specific measure of housing quality used in the study is crowdedness, proxied by the number of persons per room. Analysis of data taken from the 1980 U.S. Census Public Use Sample reveals that female-headed extended households experience crowding disproportionately in comparison to other female-headed households. Marital status, age and location also significantly affect housing consumption. Young black female household heads who are separated and live in the South are particularly likely to reside in crowded conditions. Improved labor market outcomes for household heads are found to be more effective in generating improvements in housing quality than increased transfer payments.

Racial Differences in Housing

Changes and differences in housing quality for blacks and whites in the United States between 1960 and 1978 were examined using data from the Annual Housing Surveys for the years 1974 and 1978, and from the one-in-one-thousand sample Public Use File from the 1960 Census. There were substantial improvements in housing quality between 1960 and 1978. However, racial differences in housing quality, as measured by structural deficiency, crowding, and age of housing unit, persisted over the two decades regardless of socioeconomic status, family composition, and geographic regions. The data do not reveal substantial declines in racial disparity in housing over the two decades.

Changes in the Housing Situation of the Elderly:

This paper presents results of a careful examination of the changes in the housing circumstances of the elderly over the 1974-79 period, using data from the Annual Housing Survey. The focus is on both the quality of housing occupied and the level of income devoted to housing. The outcomes show that among elderly households there has been substantial and widespread improvement in housing quality especially the incidence of serious structural defects. Improvements in housing quality appear to be achieved by the elderly expending more of their incomes for housing. This however may be a temporary problem due to several factors. Stabilized energy prices, reduced inflation, and a rental building surge fostered by the provisions of the Economic Tax Recovery Acy of 1981 may offer some relief.