Healthy Housing: Exploring between Public Health & Municipal Property Standards

Speakers:
Robert Hart [email protected]
John Burnett [email protected]
Vittoria Vecchiarelli [email protected]
Helen Doyle [email protected]

Title: The Above Standard Housing Project: Exploring the Causes of Persistent Substandard Conditions in Low-Income Housing


Abstract: Housing plays an immense and complex role in shaping our physical, mental and social well-being. Access, condition, proximity to environmental hazards, and connectedness with the rest of the community are all factors that determine whether housing contributes to or detracts from human health.

Substandard housing conditions (e.g. dampness, mould, inadequate heating/cooling, pest infestations) are a subset of these factors that have been well established as contributing to adverse health effects. Public health has a long tradition of responding to individual concerns related to substandard housing. However, efforts to understand and collectively address the root causes of these concerns have been lacking.

In an attempt to move beyond this approach to substandard housing, GBHU has embarked on the multi-year Above Standard Housing Project. Aligned with the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force, the project takes a multifactorial approach to the issues surrounding adverse physical housing conditions with a view to

· defining the type, magnitude and distribution of substandard housing conditions existing in Grey Bruce
· identifying challenges that hamper solutions for achieving broad-based above standard housing
· identifying strategies that could address these challenges
.
This presentation will describe the project’s activities and findings to date.