OUP - Abstract

Gentrification and Healthy Habitats in New York City: 1990 to Present

Dissertation School: The Trustees of Columbia University

Abstract:

This dissertation will investigate how the process of neighborhood change, taken here as gentrification, is associated with changes in housing and neighborhood context(that is, the habitat), and individual and community health and wellness outcomes. The overall goal of the proposed research is to better understand the relationship between gentrification and health, in particular by examining plausible health-related mechanisms of the habitat (that is, housing and neighborhood context). Specific aims are to: identify characteristics of the habitat that can plausibly influence health and wellness and develop multidimensional indicators to classify healthy habitats; examine the relationship between gentrification and changes in health-related features of the habitat; and examine patterns of association among gentrification status, changes in the habitat, and changes in individual and community health.

In addition, the proposed project has the following methodological and measurement goals: to identify indicators of housing, neighborhood, health, and wellness that can be used across disciplines and in evaluations to measure progress and success of HUD-sponsored and other programs; and to provide a method for working with publicly available datasets, which collect and report data at different levels of aggregation.

The proposed research is a secondary data analysis using multiple publicly-available datasets that contain data on housing, neighborhood, and health-related indicators over time. The methodology being employed includes descriptive analysis, data reduction techniques (that is, factor and cluster analyses), t-tests and ANOVAs for analysis of subpopulations, and ecological and multilevel regression analyses, as well as qualitative mapping techniques. The proposed research will address three of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) goals articulated in the 2010-15 Strategic Plan: utilizing HUD assistance to improve health outcomes; ensuring open, diverse, and equitable communities; and building the capacity of local, state, and regional public and private organizations.

Moreover, it will address significant gaps in the literature and provide knowledge into how housing and neighborhood contexts together are associated with health outcomes and how the larger process of gentrification is associated with the health of vulnerable subpopulations and influences access to open, diverse, and equitable communities.

Findings can also be integrated with two of HUD's measurement tools in development: HUD's resident surveys and HUD's multidimensional health and wellness measure. Important for policymakers and program developers, this study will identify particular features of the habitat to target deleterious effects of neighborhood change and build healthy, inclusive, and sustainable communities. Finally, research and program and policy development that addresses issues of housing, community, and health are best tackled across disciplines, including public health, housing and community development, urban planning, public policy, social work, and sociology, making findings from this study broad in scope and reach and useful to a wide audience.

The proposed research is expected to have a broader impact via two main activities. First, findings will be integrated with other researchers and practitioners by collaborating on future cross-discipline research studies together, as well as submitting the dissertation to Dissertation Abstracts, submitting findings to clearinghouse websites and submitting manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals, including HUD's Cityscape. Second, findings will be presented at several professional conferences, including the annual American Public Health Association meeting; the annual National Planning Conference of the American Planning Association; and the annual International Conference on Urban Health.

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