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Chapter 11 Housing and Health: Exploring the Complex Intersections Between Housing Environments and Health Behaviors Among Women Living in Poverty

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Poverty in the United States

Abstract

Location, quality, and reliability of housing are associated with physical and mental health. Financial resources (or lack thereof) and availability of affordable housing may restrict housing choice and mobility. Women, and unmarried women with children in particular, experience greater poverty rates than other groups, and, as a result, are particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of precarious housing conditions. This chapter explores interview and focus group themes as they relate to women’s experiences of their housing environment. The aims of this chapter are to (1) describe the physical attributes of housing where women reside, and the social and built characteristics of the neighborhoods where this housing is situated, and (2) explore how poverty affects housing choice and mobility. Participants felt trapped by marginal living situations resulting from limited housing choice, financial constraints, and transportation needs. Participants believed that their environments affected their physical and emotional well-being and described trade-offs that had immediate and long-term health implications (e.g., exchanging sex for housing, staying in dilapidated housing to keep benefits), and perceived low control over these situations. Women living in poverty require assistance identifying and relocating to safe, affordable housing with adequate transportation access. Programming should be coupled with interventions to increase women’s financial assets and mental health and with reevaluations of policies contributing to poverty and unstable housing.

“I wish I could move, but … I can’t afford nowhere else to live.”

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. FHI 360, Durham, NC, USA

    Danielle F. Haley, Emily F. Dauria & Hannah L. F. Cooper

  2. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Danielle F. Haley

  3. Department of Health Studies, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA

    Kimberly A. Parker

  4. Rollins School of Public Health and Center for AIDS Research, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Christin Root

  5. Bronx Lebanon Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Lorenna Rodriguez

  6. Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Erin Ruel & Deirdre Oakley

  7. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Jing Wang

  8. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Larissa Jennings

  9. Kelly Government Solutions, Contractor to DAIDS/NIAID/NIH, Rockville, MD, USA

    Lydia Soto-Torres

Authors
  1. Danielle F. Haley
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  2. Kimberly A. Parker
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  3. Emily F. Dauria
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  4. Christin Root
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  5. Lorenna Rodriguez
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  6. Erin Ruel
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  7. Deirdre Oakley
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  8. Jing Wang
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  9. Larissa Jennings
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  10. Lydia Soto-Torres
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  11. Hannah L. F. Cooper
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Correspondence to Danielle F. Haley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ann O'Leary

  2. Department of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Paula M. Frew

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Haley, D.F. et al. (2017). Chapter 11 Housing and Health: Exploring the Complex Intersections Between Housing Environments and Health Behaviors Among Women Living in Poverty. In: O'Leary, A., Frew, P. (eds) Poverty in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43833-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43833-7_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43833-7

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