Impact of vacant lot greening on health and safety in America's urban neighborhoods

As many former manufacturing cities across the US have suffered from job loss and population decline over the last several decades, once thriving residential and commercial neighborhoods have become marked by urban blight. Vacant lots, for example, are abundant in many urban neighborhoods and are often overgrown with vegetation, used to dump trash and conduct illegal activity such as drug use, prostitution, or hiding illegal guns.  Vacant lots have been linked to negative health outcomes, such as stress and anxiety. Researchers at the Urban Health Lab at the University of Pennsylvania partnered with the non-profit organization Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS) to study the impact of a simple and reproducible vacant lot greening treatment on health and safety. Greening consists of removing trash, grading soil, planting new grass and trees, and installing a simple post- and rail-fence. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of vacant lot greening and interviewed residents living around study vacant lots. In depth interviews revealed that vacant land is a significant mental and physical health concern for resident. Residents felt significantly safer after vacant lot greening. Police reported crime trended down, though not significantly, around greened vacant lots. The learning objectives of this session are fourfold: (1) to identify the specific health risks associated with vacant lots, (2) to describe the greening treatment and its health impact, (3) to discuss methodological challenges with measuring health response to neighborhood structural change, and (4) to discuss the advantages and challenges of academic-community research partnerships.