Rebuilding Neighborhoods, Restoring Health: Assessing and alleviating health impacts of foreclosure through local partnership, community organizing, and policy change

In 2008, Causa Justa: Just Cause (CJJC) – a local housing and civil rights organization – approached the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) about the severe toll that foreclosures are taking on health across Oakland. CJJC asked ACPHD to participate in a Health Impact Assessment of local policies for mitigating the crisis. They asserted that incorporating a health perspective in framing the policy debate could help move critical policies forward.

Before launching a policy campaign, it was critical to build awareness about the links between foreclosures and health. To investigate health impacts of foreclosure in some of the hardest hit communities in Oakland, CJJC and ACPHD went door-to-door during summer of 2009 to conduct an in-depth, semi-structured survey. 388 residents were surveyed. Survey findings reveal multiple pathways by which foreclosures are leading to individual and community impacts on physical and mental health in Oakland.

Besides elucidating these pathways, this session will focus on how the survey and its findings are being used to organize these hard-hit communities and advocate for policy change. The data has already been utilized to advance the adoption of a Foreclosure Vacancy Registration Ordinance by the City of Oakland. In addition, CJJC is using assessment findings to inform work on stronger local and statewide legislation that will protect homeowners and tenants and hold banks accountable. We will share lessons learned throughout this unique, effective partnership between a housing advocacy group and local health department that are working to rebuild foreclosure-stricken neighborhoods and restore their health.