Finding Where It's Hard to Breath: Assessing Inequities in Neighborhood Housing Conditions in Baltimore City

Baltimore City is home to some of the highest child asthma and lead poisoning rates in the country. The city's housing stock is quite old, with about 40% of housing units having been constructed before 1940, and about 83% before 1970. Moreover, about 52% of renting households can be classified as housing-burdened (>30% of income on housing expenses), and finding “affordable” housing free from health-threatening inadequacies is quite difficult, even improbable. While housing conditions, e.g. presence of pests and mold, are well-established health risk-factors, city health and housing agencies had not completed work to characterize neighborhood housing conditions and associations with morbidity, e.g. asthma. This project assessed inequities in housing conditions between neighborhoods in an effort to better identify high-risk areas to inform policy strategies and direct intervention activities.

Previously untapped official city and private data sources were explored for measures of indoor housing conditions. Four measures were identified and developed into indicators for analysis: lead paint violations, rodent incidents, insect (e.g. roaches) incidents, and energy cutoffs for nonpayment. Data were analyzed, geocoded, and mapped at the census-tract level using GIS software. These analyses revealed stark inequities between neighborhoods, and marked the first time such housing measures were incorporated into public health practice efforts by the city health department to address social determinants of health inequities between city neighborhoods. This presentation will discuss how these new data have been and will be used for future policy and community-based efforts to address housing-related health inequities in the city. Data and maps will be presented.