Wellbeing (e.g. Youth, Community, Mental)
Sharing Session - 90 Minutes
Angela McGowan, JD, MPH
Project Director
HHS/ODPHP (CDC Assignee)
Katie Moran-McCabe, JD
Special Projects Manager
Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University Beasley School of Law
David Bowser, MPH
Community Support Services Manager
City of Detroit Health Department
This presentation will highlight ways that legal and policy tools can be used to address housing and achieve key Healthy People targets, including those that address the social determinants of health. Presenters from the Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which implements the Healthy People initiative, will provide an overview of Healthy People with particular focus on objectives related to safe, stable, and healthy housing, their impact on improved health outcomes, and opportunities to leverage legal and policy tools to improve housing for individuals and in communities.
A presenter from Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research will share findings from a project exploring how legal levers can influence housing including its affordability, quality, and stability, thereby impacting health and improving equity. Comprehensive datasets focusing on landlord/tenant laws, nondiscrimination in housing laws, and city nuisance property ordinances (40 largest cities) will also be discussed. As part of this presentation, a brief background will be provided on legal epidemiology and other tools that can be used to evaluate the impact of laws and policies on health.
Finally, efforts in the City of Detroit to improve health by focusing on healthy and safe housing through means such as inspecting rental homes and preventing dangerous exposure to lead will be shared. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own successes and challenges in promoting healthy housing in their own communities and to discuss the role law and policy could potentially play as a lever to promote housing equity.