1,903
Views
45
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Housing Affordability and Health: Evidence From New York City

&
Pages 80-104
Received 30 Jul 2014
Accepted 10 Feb 2015
Published online: 27 Apr 2015
 

It is generally understood that households make tradeoffs between housing costs and other living expenses. In this article, we examine the relationship between health-related outcomes and housing-induced financial burdens for renters in one of the most expensive cities in the world, New York, New York. Drawing from the Housing Vacancy Survey for 2011, a representative survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau of more than 16,000 households in New York City, we estimate the effect of housing cost burden on the overall health of renters and the extent to which they have postponed various types of medical services for financial reasons. Results show that higher out-of-pocket rent burdens are associated with worse self-reported health conditions and a higher likelihood to postpone medical services for financial reasons. This relationship is particularly strong for those households with severe rent burdens. In addition, housing cost burden is equally or more important than other physical housing characteristics in explaining the variation in self-reported general health status and health care postponement. These findings are robust across specifications with different degrees of household, unit/building, and neighborhood controls, and among longstanding and newer renters. Our findings point to the importance of considering health-related outcomes when designing housing policies, and that housing subsidies should target both renters' out-of-pocket costs and place-based repair and maintenance.

Acknowledgments

We thank Rachel Marie Atkins for excellent research assistance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Meltzer

Rachel Meltzer is an assistant professor of Urban Policy at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. Her research centers on issues related to housing, economic development, and local public finance, and shows how public policies in these areas affect neighborhoods and cities.

Alex Schwartz

Alex Schwartz is a professor of Urban Policy at the New School and is author of Housing Policy in the United States (3rd Edition) (Routledge, 2015).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 47.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 197.00 Add to cart

Purchase access via tokens

  • Choose from packages of 10, 20, and 30 tokens
  • Can use on articles across multiple libraries & subject collections
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded & printed
From USD 450.00
per package
Learn more
* Local tax will be added as applicable
 

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.