Evidence Matters: Winter 2016

March 29, 2016  

Evidence Matters: Winter 2016

The Winter 2016 issue of Evidence Matters: Transforming Knowledge Into Housing and Community Development Policy, which highlights the links between housing and health, is now available. This issue examines the research basis for these linkages as well as federal policies that align housing and health resources. Additionally, this issue of Evidence Matters profiles several local governments using the Pay For Success model to develop housing interventions that improve health and other outcomes and explores the research basis for eliminating smoking from public housing.

As recent events in Flint, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio have made terribly clear, environmental hazards like lead can have profound consequences on individuals and communities. While this issue does not directly address the crisis of lead in water systems, its articles discuss the ongoing challenge of lead remediation in America's housing stock.

Key Findings

• A large body of research has established that housing characteristics, ranging from physical quality to neighborhood conditions, affect a range of health outcomes.

• Targeted interventions at the nexus of health and housing, such as addressing asthma triggers and providing supportive housing to individuals experiencing homelessness, can improve health outcomes while also reducing long-term healthcare expenditures.

• HUD's proposed rule to ban smoking in all public housing properties is expected to reduce healthcare costs related to secondhand smoke among nonsmoking residents and generate other cost savings for public housing agencies.

• The Pay For Success model helps ensure that government resources are only spent on successful programs and has the potential to encourage greater evidence-based policymaking to tackle multidimensional challenges.

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