Learning together: A participatory Health Impact Assessment of San Francisco public housing redevelopment

Future decisions concerning the redevelopment of public housing in San Francisco can be informed by the past experiences of communities that have already undergone redevelopment. We describe the opportunities and challenges involved in conducting a Health Impact Assessment of public housing redevelopment at two geographically distinct public housing projects with different community-based organizations. Through a screening and scoping process with community partners we defined a set of health issues that not only differed between the sites, but ultimately required different participatory research approaches. While at one site we faced challenges working with a fragmented set of community-based organizations that made it difficult for active participation, at the other site, we faced challenges related to fragmentation among community residents along racial and income lines. By working closely with only a small number of community partners we are currently employing small focus groups, key informant interviews, and well-defined surveys to address some of challenges related to lack of trust and fear of outsiders, and avoiding research fatigue by focusing on important questions that will provide useful new data that can both help our community partners as well as inform ongoing planning for redevelopment at other sites.