Community Health Profile: Influence of the Home Preservation Initiative on Health of Mantua Residents
The Urban Health Collaborative and its partners aimed to identify ways in which residents' health and neighborhoods are affected by housing conditions and home repairs.
Community Brief
January 2018
View the brief: Influence of the Home Preservation Initiative on Health of Mantua Residents [PDF]
What is the Home Preservation Initiative?
During a neighborhood planning process in 2010- 2011, home repairs and preservation were identified by residents as a critical need.
The Home Preservation Initiative (HPI), sponsored in-part by Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation Philadelphia (LISC), works with repair partners Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia and Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, and outreach and intake partners, People's Emergency Center and Mount Vernon Manor CDC to provide home repairs for residents in Mantua, a neighborhood in West Philadelphia. They coordinate multiple services to deliver quality repairs in a more cost-effective manner.
The HPI aims to improve the safety, energy-efficiency and overall quality of homes for low-income residents of West Philadelphia. The overall improvement of the community's housing stock helps to preserve affordable homeownership and improves quality of life by beautifying the neighborhood.
Why Repair Homes?
Living in poor housing may be associated with depression and weaker social relations. Physical health impacts may include reduced mobility, respiratory problems (such as asthma), and injuries. The places where people live impact their health.
How Do We Know if the Home Preservation Initiative Made an Impact?
The Drexel Urban Health Collaborative partnered with the HPI to help understand the experience of residents who received home repairs. The goal was to identify the ways in which their health and neighborhoods are affected by housing conditions and home repairs.
In-person interviews of 41 Mantua residents were conducted in June and July 2016. More than 70 percent of residents interviewed had lived in their home for more than 10 years (see page 3 for more details).
Interviews included questions about residents' perspectives of home and neighborhood; perceptions of their health due to their housing and neighborhood, and changes in quality of life or health resulting from the repair services they received.
Read the full brief Influence of the Home Preservation Initiative on Health of Mantua Residents [PDF] to find out what we learned from residents about how housing issues and repairs influence health.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to our study participants, collaborators and reviewers, especially Jenny Chen, Carolyn Placke, Carrie Rathmann and Stefanie Seldin.
This brief was sponsored in part by our partners at Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, People's Emergency Center and Mount Vernon Manor CDC.
Read a related news article by Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia: Keeping Homeowners Safe in Their Homes and Stabilizing Neighborhoods
Citation:
Michael, Y, Tano, R, Chen, C, Barber, S, Carroll-Scott, A, Livengood, K. Influence of the Home Preservation Initiative on Health. Philadelphia, PA. Drexel University Urban Health Collaborative; Jan. 2018.