Health Complaints Associated with Poor Rental Housing Conditions in Arkansas: The Only State without a Landlord's Implied Warranty of Habitability

Historical Redlining and Community-Reported Housing Quality: A Spatial Analysis

Historical redlining, a racially discriminatory practice implemented by the US government in the 1930s, has been associated with present-day environmental outcomes. However, there is limited research examining the relationship between historical redlining and contemporary housing quality. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between historical redlining and contemporary housing quality in Atlanta, Georgia. Spatial patterns of housing code violation complaints from 2015 to 2019 were examined using point-pattern and spatial cluster analyses. We used Bayesian hierarchical models, accounting for spatial autocorrelation, to estimate associations between historical redlining and housing complaints, after adjusting for contemporary neighborhood characteristics, such as poverty, median structure age, vacant and renter-occupied properties, and residential racial segregation. A total of 48,626 housing code violation complaints were reported during the study period, including 6531 complaints deemed "hazardous." Historical redlining was a statistically significant predictor of housing complaints. We observed a 167% increased risk (IRR = 2.67, 95% confidence interval = 1.49, 4.77) of housing complaints for historically redlined neighborhoods compared to neighborhoods historically graded as "best" or "still desirable," after adjusting for neighborhood characteristics. Redlined neighborhoods also had an increased risk of "hazardous" housing complaints (IRR = 1.94, 95% confidence interval = 1.11, 3.40), after adjusting for contemporary neighborhood characteristics. Historically redlined neighborhoods exhibited disproportionately higher rates of housing code violation complaints. Spatial analysis of housing code violation complaints can provide insights into housing quality and inform interventions targeted at addressing the environmental legacy of structural racism.

Associations between Rat Infestations and Mental Health Vary by Gender, Race, and Income in Chicago

Rats are an understudied stressor for people in urban environments around the world but the effects may not be distributed equally among residents. In this study, we examined associations between residential rat sightings and mental health in Chicago, where rat complaints are the highest of any American city. We examined how this relationship varied by frequency of rat sightings, race, ethnicity, income, home ownership, and gender and explored potential psychosocial pathways (e.g., feelings about the home) between rat sightings and mental distress. We conducted a randomized household survey along an income gradient in 2021 and asked about depressive symptoms in the past week (i.e., Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale), frequency of rat sightings in/around the home, perceptions of rats, neighborhood conditions, and socio-demographic characteristics. We used logistic regression to assess relationships among these variables for our entire sample and for specific demographics using stratified models. Respondents (n = 589; 409 complete cases) who saw rats in/around the home daily/almost daily had 5.5 times higher odds of reporting high depressive symptoms relative to respondents who saw rats less frequently after accounting for socio-demographics and neighborhood conditions. This relationship was significant for men and respondents with lower incomes or race or ethnicity other than white. Our results show that rat infestations should be considered a threat to mental health among urban residents. Increased mental health support for residents living in rat-infested housing may improve public health in cities.

They Built My Soul: A Qualitative Analysis of the Impacts of Home Repairs in Rural Tennessee

BACKGROUND

Housing is an important social determinant of health and substandard housing is linked to physical, mental, and social health problems.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study was to qualitatively assess the impacts of repairs to substandard housing in rural East Tennessee through twenty-eight interviews.

METHODS

Zoom was utilized for recording phone interviews in January-February 2021 and NVivo software was used for thematic analysis in May-July 2021.

RESULTS

Themes that emerged included environmental risk reduction, impacts on physical health, impacts on mental health, impacts on financial well-being, and willingness to receive future assistance from service organizations.

IMPLICATIONS

Further research is recommended to quantify impacts including effects on utilization of health care and community services, school and work attendance, and mental health impacts.

"They're always there": resident experiences of living with rats in a disadvantaged urban neighbourhood

Background

The presence of urban rats in the neighbourhood environment may negatively impact the physical and mental health of residents. Our study sought to describe the experiences with, perceptions of, and feelings towards rats and rat control efforts among a group of disadvantaged urban residents in Vancouver, Canada.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were held with 20 members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) recruited by VANDU staff. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results

Participants reported daily sightings of rats and close contact during encounters. Participants generally disliked encountering rats, raising issues of health and safety for themselves and the community due to the belief that rats carry disease. Fear of rats was common, and in some cases resulted in avoidance of rats. Effects of rats on participants were particularly pronounced for those living with rats in the home or for homeless participants who described impacts on sleep due to the sounds made by rats. Although rats were viewed as more problematic in their neighbourhood than elsewhere in Vancouver, participants believed there to be a lack of neighbourhood-level control initiatives that angered and disheartened participants. In combination with other community-level concerns (e.g., housing quality and availability), the presence of rats was viewed by some to align with a general disregard for the community and its residents.

Conclusions

This study suggests that the presence of rats in urban centres may have several consequences on the physical and mental health of residents living in close contact with them. These effects may be exacerbated with continued contact with rats and when residents perceive a lack of initiative to control rats in their neighbourhood. As such, research and policies aimed at mitigating the health risks posed by rats should extend beyond disease-related risk and incorporate diverse health outcomes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7202-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Health Complaints Associated With Poor Rental Housing Conditions in Arkansas: The Only State Without a Landlord's Implied Warranty of Habitability

This is a review of an existing article that surveyed the perceived health of renters' in Arkansas. As a first in the field of public health it was able to provide ground-level insight through tenant interviews about housing and health in the state. This review illuminates how the state's sociopolitical characteristics may affect marginalized Arkansas renters. Marginalized renters may include persons living below the poverty line, people of color, and women who are the head of household. This article seeks to elucidate how the upstream factor, habitability law, may impact tenant health in the state. With a novel public health approach, the article contributes to the existing housing and health literature with its invaluable insight of stakeholders' perspectives relating to how habitability law may impact their health outcomes. Now is an opportune time for public health practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to facilitate incremental change to include landlords in their state public health system. Such inclusion may improve housing while promoting, improving, and protecting health outcomes for Arkansas renters.