Opinion: How the twin crises of climate change and poor public housing are harming people’s health

How the twin crises of climate change and poor public housing are harming people’s health Increasing extreme weather events compound the poor quality and availability of public housing, placing those facing housing insecurity in the center of two major public health crises. Torie Bosch STAT

Climate change is an existential problem for human health. As climate change intensifies, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cold fronts, and floods will increase. Undoubtedly, this will result in devastating effects for human health and wellbeing, contributing to increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, an already growing mental health crisis, and, most directly, heat-related mortality.

At the same time, millions of families in the United States already suffer poor health caused or exacerbated by substandard or deteriorating low-income public housing. Adverse outcomes range from household trigger-associated chronic illnesses to obesity to accidents resulting from a lack of safely built housing. Public housing is populated by the elderly, the poor, and the sick — the populations most marginalized and most at-risk for poor health outcomes due to climate change.

Further, public housing is often located in climate-vulnerable areas, which are especially susceptible to extreme weather events. Therefore, although climate change and the affordable housing crisis are often thought of and addressed as separate issues, they are intimately intertwined: increasing extreme weather events compound the poor quality and availability of public housing, placing those facing housing insecurity in the center of two major public health crises.

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