How Are HOPE VI Families Faring? Health

Brief #5 from the series "Metropolitan Housing and Communities: A Roof Over Their Heads"

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The HOPE VI program aims to improve neighborhood conditions by revitalizing distressed public housing communities and assisting residents with moving to better housing in less distressed neighborhoods (Buron 2004; Comey 2004). In addition to housing, one goal of the HOPE VI program is to address the social and economic needs of the original residents. The HOPE VI Panel Study is tracking the well-being of residents from five sites where relocation began in 2001 (see page 7). Our baseline survey indicated that health—both physical and mental—is a major concern for HOPE VI Panel Study families (Popkin et al. 2002). Adult respondents reported extremely high rates of overall poor health. Several physical health problems were significantly more prevalent among HOPE VI adults than among the overall population, and even more prevalent than among minority women nationwide,¹ a group that already has higher prevalence rates for many health problems than whites and men. The proportion of respondents reporting problems with depression and anxiety was also very high.

Relocation may be particularly difficult for residents coping with serious physical or mental health conditions. The stress of having to move may exacerbate existing problems, and the need to be close to transportation, social supports, and medical services may limit residents' options for relocation. To realize the HOPE VI program's goal of creating new mixed-income communities, some housing authorities plan to impose work requirements on residents returning to revitalized sites; those suffering from physical or mental health problems may not be able to meet such requirements. Some sites offer supportive services to facilitate enrollment in education and job training programs. However, residents suffering from serious health problems may not be able to take advantage of such services or take steps toward becoming economically self-sufficient.

Because of the unexpected severity of reported health problems at baseline, health was a major focus of the follow-up survey in 2003. This brief details the prevalence of several physical and mental health problems among residents in the HOPE VI Panel Study sample, and discusses how these serious health challenges may affect residents' relocation experiences and their long-term prospects for improving their economic circumstances.

Notes from this section

1. Because many health problems vary significantly by gender and race, and because over 90 percent of the adults in the HOPE VI Panel Study are women and 89 percent are African American, a sample of black women nationally is used as the comparison group. The national data cited in this brief are published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, calculated from the National Health Interview Survey in 2001.

National Health Interview Survey data are broken down by sex and race, but not further by poverty status. Nationally, approximately one-third of all black women live in households with incomes below the poverty level. Therefore, the comparison data are biased slightly upward in terms of better health because of the relatively better economic well-being of the national population of black women compared to the HOPE VI sample. Even limiting the comparisons to similar gender, race, and age groups, adults in the HOPE VI study experience health problems more often than other demographically similar groups.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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