The Public Health Issue of Lack of Affordable Housing and Impacts on State Level
Would the public health approach to the affordable housing crisis decrease rates of poor health outcomes for low-income families?
From a Future Nurse’s Perspective
November 29, 2020
Jennifer Sinchi
West Coast University
Although America is a developed country, however, she faces typical problems such as affordable housing. There are various causes for the lack of affordable housing for which poor policies, demographics, and market forces can be blamed for being the main culprit. It is important to mention here that the affordable housing crisis is affecting the low-income population the most since they have to spend half of their earned income on paying rents for their homes. As a result, low-income families do not have money to pay for education, medical, and other basic needs such as food and clothing. Since low-income families fail to save money for other basic needs while fulfilling the need for shelter, they end up having a poor lifestyle since the major portion of their incomes goes to rents and housing-related utilities. Furthermore, there are ethical, cultural, regulatory, and legal issues concerned with this housing crisis. Therefore, it should be the prime concern for the American administration and legislators to pave the way for affordable housing and present solutions to this impending crisis.
Article One Making the Case for “Whole System” Approaches: Integrating Public Health and Housing.
An article published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2018 discusses the main aspects pf housing and health challenges in developed countries such as the United States and England and suggests a working model that can be implemented to promote health and well-being, equity and environmental sustainability or “triple win” as mentioned in the article. The paper proposes that such an outcome can be achieved by “offering a perspective on how to navigate more effectively, inclusively and across sectors when identifying sustainable housing interventions.” (Sharpe et al., 2018)
The article is very credible because it uses information from National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), leading medical and public health journals, notable pediatricians across England, The South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN), the Public Health England (PHE), the National Housing Trust, and the European Regional Development. The data from these official institutes makes the said article trustworthy. It is also a peer-reviewed article.
This article will help me in making my case that lack of affordable housing is a public health issue caused by low-income and poverty, increased demand for affordable housing, and high living costs. It will help me write the background section for my paper, where I will discuss the causes of deficiency of affordable housing in the context of developed countries. Furthermore, this article will also help me in finding a solution to this crisis using a whole system approach where cultural differences among the community would be taken into consideration to enable the policymakers to integrate affordable housing with the large context of public health.
Article Two Identifying Variability in Permanent Supportive Housing: A comparative effectiveness approach to measuring health outcomes
An article published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry considers that correlates public health and affordable housing. The article talks about supporting housing and measuring health outcomes. The article examines qualitative interviews with supportive housing providers in the Chicago Metropolitan area and discussed the causes of the housing crisis. The most significant causes were gentrification of neighborhoods, biased policies and regulatory barriers, and a high gap between income growth and Inflation. Furthermore, this article summarizes “differences in supportive housing programs for the chronically homeless in the Chicago area. Results suggest that there are advantages and disadvantages to different program components and that further research is needed to determine their effects on health.”((Dickson-Gomez et al., 2017)
The article is a part of a publication from the American Psychological Association that describes the link between housing conditions and poor health outcomes in the context of New York and Chicago through real-time qualitative methodology, which adds to the credibility of the main article. It is also a peer-reviewed article published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, which is funded by the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice. The journal is dedicated to the publication of original work about policy, practice, and research related to behavioral health, social justice, and well-being in the context of public health.
The article is extremely useful in writing my actual paper since it offers insight into the factors that control affordable housing and the existing policies about the said issue. There are results of the interviews within the article, which I can use in my paper to make my case strong about the ethical and regulatory issues concerned with affordable housing. Additionally, I can use the statistical information in the money, power, and control section of my paper.
Article Three Housing as Health Capital: How Health Trajectories and Housing Paths Are Linked
An article published in the Journal of Social Issues argues that the lack of affordable housing is related to health trajectories. The author discusses that housing and health status are linked because the lack of housing can lead to higher health costs. Similarly, housing conditions and neighborhood factors can lead to avoidable health costs and bad outcomes. “Housing thereby contributes to the accumulation, or depletion, of the health capital of individuals and communities.”(Smith et al., 2003).
The article is credible since it is written by a Ph.D. scholar who is a professor of Geography at the University of Edinburgh. The article uses data from notable journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Policy and Politics, Public Health, Health and Place, Housing Studies, and the British Medical Journal. Some of these are peer-reviewed journals to and it helped the author of the article to presents its case for considering health partners’ roles in affordable housing. It is also a peer-reviewed article published in Journal of Social Issues funded by The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, which is based on a group of three thousand scientists who share interests about psychological aspects of social matters such as public housing and policy issues.
This article will help me to make arguments that it is the concern of the caregiver and medical staff to play their role in addressing the affordable housing crisis. Additionally, it will make my arguments persuasive by helping me establish the case for ethical obligations for medical staff. The article will help me highlight the role of a nurse, who should be concerned for assessing a patient living status because this assessment is essential to get the adequate care the patient needs once he is discharged. It is a nurse’s duty to communicate with the social worker to arrange appropriate care for a low income or homeless patient.
References
Sharpe, R. A., Taylor, T., Fleming, L. E., Morrissey, K., Morris, G., & Wigglesworth, R. (2018). Making the case for “whole system” approaches: Integrating public health and housing. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(11), 2345.
Dickson-Gomez, J., Quinn, K., Bendixen, A., Johnson, A., Nowicki, K., Ko Ko, T., & Galletly, C. (2017). Identifying variability in permanent supportive housing: A comparative effectiveness approach to measuring health outcomes. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 87(4), 414.
Smith, S. J., Easterlow, D., Munro, M., & Turner, K. M. (2003). Housing as health capital: how health trajectories and housing paths are linked. Journal of social issues, 59(3), 501-525.