Investing for Long-Life Zip Codes

Posted: December 10, 2012 | Author: HEFN Blog | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: environmental health, environmental justice, health, housing, philanthropy | 1 Comment »

David Fukuzawa

David Fukuzawa, Program Director for Health at the Kresge Foundation and HEFN member, blogs about what the Kresge Foundation and the Health and Housing Funders Forum are doing to encourage funding at the intersections of health and housing.

I recently took a tour of slum housing in South Los Angeles and met with a community collaborative comprised of a community health center, a tenants’ rights organization and non-profit housing developer. The partnership grew out of the recognition that health care alone wasn’t going to fix the health problems of the 48,000 people living in run-down, infested, toxic housing who get sick each year. (And as if housing wasn’t bad enough, there is now a fracking well right in the middle of the ‘hood.)

A growing cross-sectoral chorus agrees housing has a significant effect on human health. The National Prevention Strategy, which was mandated by the Affordable Care Act, identified “Healthy and Safe Community Environments” as one of four strategic directions. In the influential Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission’s forthcoming recommendations for U.S. housing policy, a key principle is to ensure a decent and suitable living environment for all Americans.

In Investing in What Works for America’s Communities, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey comments on the need for collaboration between those in the health and community development fields, saying “each of these sectors has had the same goal for decades: improving the lives of low-income families. Together we spend billions of dollars each year. Joining forces is not about spending more money but about better targeting our efforts, sharing tools and data, and learning what is working and then replicating those programs and investments.”

The Kresge Foundation sees a great need to address unhealthy housing conditions. Nearly six million homes are in substandard condition; equally vexing is the persistent disparities gap, with people of color and low-income families two to three times more likely to live in poor conditions. For these families, the “choice” of a home in a “long-life zip code” simply isn’t an option.

To accelerate progress in the field, the Kresge Foundation has committed four million dollars to its Advancing Safe and Healthy Homes initiative (ASHHI). ASHHI is intended to produce over five hundred safe and healthy homes and help grant recipients enact system changes to “routinize” healthy housing through local policy change.

Kresge has also forged a new philanthropic partnership called the Health and Housing Funders Forum (Funders Forum), which fosters collaboration among philanthropic organizations to make a significant impact in the area of healthy housing and healthy communities. A key priority for the Funders Forum is to sharpen the communications around housing and health by creating a unifying and empowering message.

As a first step, the Funders Forum is convening a webinar where the Frameworks Institute will present its research on environmental health communications and a related report. I invite funders to join us on Wednesday December 12^th at 2-3 p.m. EST for this webinar and be part of this multi-disciplinary discourse. Click here to register.

Check out these slides from the National Center for Healthy Housing on the Wheeler Terrace Project in Washington, DC:

: Wheeler Terrace is a 113-unit, seven-building apartment community located in the southeast region of Washington, DC (Anacostia – Ward 8).

: In October 2006, the WTA elected to transfer its ownership and development rights to CPDC with the goal of redeveloping the entire complex and preserving long-term affordable rents and utilizing CPDC’s extensive affordable housing experience.

: Wheeler Terrace is in Ward 8, in the Anacostia section of Washington, DC, close to Bolling Air Force Base, the Washington Navy Yard.

: According to the 2000 Census, the total population of zip code 20032, in which WT is located, has a population of 31,688 residents, 9% of which are under 5 years of age, half of which are female, and 97% of whom are Black or African-American. 43% of individuals living in the neighborhood around WT are not in the labor force, 12% are unemployed civilians, and 46% are employed civilians. 32.4% of families in this zip code 20032 live below the poverty line, compared with 9.2% of families in the US population as a whole.

: For 2005, DC DOH reported that of 342 children tested in zip code 20032, where Wheeler Terrace is located, 98% had blood lead levels less than 10 μg/dL, Current asthma prevalence for 0 to 17 year olds in mid-Atlantic metropolitan areas is 9.6%, and 12% for poor 0 to 17 year old children. According to DC DOH (2005), in 2002, of the eight DC wards, current asthma prevalence was highest in Ward 8 (12.6%).