Applying Community Health Data to Local Housing Strategies

Housing Solutions Lab: About the Lab

The impact of housing on health is well documented, with a significant body of research that demonstrates the ways that housing influences individual and community health through the pathways of housing affordability, stability, quality, and neighborhood conditions. By examining local community health data, housing officials can further explore these connections in order to develop more comprehensive housing strategies that support healthy communities.

The City Health Dashboard provides a robust resource that housing stakeholders can use to begin examining important local health data. Launched in 2018, this free, online tool provides city- and neighborhood-level data on 40+ measures of health and the drivers of health for U.S. cities with 50,000 or more residents. The Dashboard includes measures that shed light on how housing cost, quality, and other neighborhood factors influence community health, including excessive housing costs, housing with potential lead risk, air pollution, park access, walkability, and access to healthy food. The Dashboard also provides key health outcome measures that provide a snapshot of the overall health and well-being of residents in a locality through measures such as life expectancy and premature death.