Governing Health Equity in Housing

Abstract

This report is the fifth in a series of reports exploring the role of law in housing equity and innovative uses of law to improve health equity through housing. The reports are based on extensive literature scans and semi-structured interviews with people who are taking action in housing policy and practice. The full series includes: Report I: A Vision of Health Equity in Housing; Report II: Legal Levers for Health Equity in Housing: A Systems Approach; Report III: Health Equity in Housing: Evidence and Evidence Gaps; Report IV: Creative People and Places Building Health Equity in Housing; Report V: Governing Health Equity in Housing; and Report VI: Health Equity through Housing: A Blueprint for Systematic Legal Action. This report focuses on governance – the coordination of many actors from many levels, including policymakers, citizens, businesses, and other individuals and organizations – as an approach to the challenge of achieving health equity in housing. In this report, we tell the story of Oak Park, Illinois: a suburb of Chicago that rewrote the housing script to establish a lasting integrated and successful community. We extract lessons learned from Oak Park, and explore its use of governance to experiment and learn, and build health equity in housing.