View Research by Author - Laura E. Harris

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/LauraEHarris

This study provides new data on the relationship between housing quality and health status for people in five HOPE VI public housing developments around the country. HOPE VI is a program to remove and replace or redevelop some of the poorest quality public housing in the country. A special survey of residents of these developments was conducted while they lived in HOPE VI housing before its redevelopment. The health status of HOPE VI residents is decidedly worse than for others in assisted housing and other poor people, despite their similarity in terms of economic deprivation. The difference in the level of asthma prevalence, a condition that has been tied to various measures of housing quality, is especially pronounced. Our analysis indicates that one major benefit of improving housing quality may be improved health status. (Howell, Embry, Harris, Laura and Popkin, Susan. May 2005. "The Health Status of HOPE VI Public Housing Residents." Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 16(2):273-285.)

One goal of the HOPE VI program is to address the social and economic needs of the original residents, and this brief urges serious consideration of their health problems. Original residents from public housing developments being revitalized as part of the HOPE VI program have high rates of many chronic health problems, such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and depression. Their rates are significantly higher than those among other poor and minority subgroups nationally. We discuss policy implications that relate to HOPE VI relocation and redevelopment, and suggest realistic expectations for economic improvement among these adults.

This research brief, the third in the "Neighborhood Change in Urban America" series, analyzes changes from 1990 to 2000 in the racial composition of 69 large metro areas nationwide. It explores increases in the number of racially integrated neighborhoods, as well as the extent to which these neighborhoods are stable or transitional. The analysis offers grounds for cautious optimism about the prospects for stable black-white integration in city and suburban neighborhoods.

The HOPE VI Resident Tracking Study represents the first systematic look at what has happened to original residents of distressed public housing developments targeted for revitalization under the HOPE VI program. It provides a snapshot of the living conditions and well-being of former residents of eight properties as of the spring of 2001—between two and seven years after the PHA was awarded a HOPE VI grant. At that time, the redevelopment process was still under way in six of the eight study sites, so the results describe a "work in progress."

The HOPE VI Panel Study focuses on the longer-term location, neighborhood conditions, physical and mental health, and socioeconomic outcomes for original residents of five HOPE VI developments where redevelopment activities began in mid- to late 2001. The specific research questions the study addresses fall into seven issue areas: housing outcomes; neighborhood outcomes; social integration; health outcomes; child education and behavior outcomes; socioeconomic outcomes; and experiences with relocation and supportive services. The study is structured as a pre- and post-intervention study, with the intervention being the changes brought about by HOPE VI activities.

Return to list of authors