Housing Assistance Programs and Low-income Households’ Health: Findings from Determinants of Perceived Health Status and Health Spending

Informal employment is an employment condition in which workers are not protected by labor regulations. It has been associated with poor health status in middle- and low-income countries, but it is still a neglected issue in high-income countries. Our aim was to estimate the association between health status and employment profiles in Spain, attending to the role of workplace risk factors. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 8,060 workers from the Seventh Spanish Working Conditions Survey (2011). We defined 4 employment profiles and estimated the associations between them and poor self-perceived health using Poisson regression models. All analyses were stratified by sex. The prevalence of the informal profile was 4% for women and 1.5% for men. Differences in self-perceived health status among employment profiles were negligible. Only women engaged in informal employment had poorer self-perceived health than those in the reference profile. This difference disappeared after adjusting models for psychosocial risk factors. In conclusion, we did not find differences in self-perceived health status between employment profiles, except for women in informal employment. Efforts should be made to improve the psychosocial risk factors in women in informal employment.

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A National Study on Transportation Affordability of HUD Housing Assistance Programs

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12010123 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 123

Author(s):

Jinat Jahan ◽

Shima Hamidi

Keyword(s):

Affordable Housing ◽

Low Income ◽

Transportation Cost ◽

Subsidized Housing ◽

Transportation Costs ◽

National Study ◽

Cost Models ◽

Housing Assistance ◽

Assistance Programs ◽

Low Income Households

This national study is an effort to measure transportation costs and affordability for the major Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing assistance programs since the transportation costs are the second largest expense of American households. This study estimates transportation costs for 76,000 address level properties from seven major HUD-designated affordable housing programs. Our transportation cost models are tailored for low-income households and account for built environmental determinants of travel, known as D variables, at the disaggregated level. We found that more than 44% of these properties in 326 U.S. metropolitan areas are unaffordable in terms of transportation costs. That could result in a waste of over $37.9 billion HUD spends annually to run these programs and subsidize housing for low-income families while some of these families spend substantial amount of their income on transportation. Our findings suggest that the provision of subsidized housing in mixed use, and transit-served neighborhoods would help low-income households to reduce their transportation costs even in auto-oriented sprawling regions. This study concludes with policy recommendations to local and federal governments and transit agencies on ways to incorporate transportation parameters to ensure true affordability for low-income residents of subsidized housing.

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Nutritional Risk, Perceived Health Status, and Depression of the Young-Old and the Old-Old in Low-Income Elderly Women

Journal of agricultural medicine and community health ◽

10.5393/jamch.2012.37.1.012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 12-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Myung-Suk Lee

Keyword(s):

Health Status ◽

Low Income ◽

Elderly Women ◽

Perceived Health ◽

Nutritional Risk ◽

Perceived Health Status ◽

Young Old

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Effects of Residential Instability of Renters on Their Perceived Health Status: Findings from the Korean Welfare Panel Study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17197125 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (19) ◽

pp. 7125

Author(s):

Kiduk Park ◽

Wonseok Seo

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Status ◽

Low Income ◽

Panel Study ◽

Perceived Health ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Perceived Health Status ◽

Residential Instability ◽

The Impact

Identifying the impact of housing instability on the health status of renters with relatively high economic difficulties is important for the improvement of renters’ quality of life and their social security. Accordingly, this study adopted a panel data regression approach to examine the associations between residential instability and perceived health status—including physical and mental health—using 14 waves (2006–2019) of longitudinal data collected by the Korean Welfare Panel Study. The results showed that residential instability significantly affected perceived health status, and renters who experienced residential instability perceived worse health status and had more severe depression than those who did not experience residential instability. Moreover, failure to meet the minimum housing standard worsened depression in renters. Despite assistance benefits from the government, permanent rental housing and the national basic living security were also factors that worsened depression. Dissatisfaction with one’s residential environment and social relationships were also associated with increased depression. We recommend that the overall quality of housing welfare services, including a focus on the mental health of low-income renters, be improved by expanding the range of services, increasing the number of professional housing welfare workers, and supplying community facilities for increasing residential and social relationship satisfactions.

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Everything Old is New Again: Affordable Housing and WAGES

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.22.1.w540x5734487555r ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 44-46

Author(s):

Michele Ogilvie

Keyword(s):

Welfare Reform ◽

Housing Market ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Low Income ◽

Economic Status ◽

Housing Assistance ◽

Assistance Programs ◽

The City ◽

Local Levels ◽

Low Income Households

Enactment of welfare reform, changes in housing assistance programs, and the devolution of control from the federal to local levels is about to have a significant impact on the housing market. The significance of these changes will be experienced differently, depending on social and economic status. For those in the middle and upper income brackets, changes will probably not be noticeable. For many low-income households and the communities in which they reside, change will be dramatic. This article's observations and comments will be limited to the city of Tampa rather than being expressed in universal terms.

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