Housing & Homeownership
Significance
Housing for all people that is safe, affordable, high-quality, and healthy.
Housing instability contributes to high levels of stress as well as difficulty securing and maintaining employment. Unaffordable housing may also contribute to homelessness or overcrowding.
Safe & Quality Housing
Housing quality and health outcomes in the United States are intimately linked. Substandard housing is associated with injury, respiratory illness, lead poisoning and asthma. Housing conditions may also reflect neighborhood conditions. For the purpose of this measure, poor housing is defined as households with two or more of the following housing conditions: housing costs greater than 30 percent of income, more than one person per room in the house, no working kitchen, no working bathroom.
Affordable Housing
Households that pay a high percentage of their income for housing have less money for essentials such as food, transportation, and health care costs. Unaffordable housing can put individuals and families at risk for homelessness. Decreasing the number of households that are cost-burdened can increase the personal capital necessary to thrive in Washington.
Healthy Housing
Traffic density correlates with increased noise pollution and ambient air pollution. Housing locations with high Weighted Road Density (WRD) scores are exposed to high levels of pollution from traffic. WRD values provide a proxy for understanding exposure to potential health risks associated with housing conditions in areas with high traffic density. WRD is a proxy measure for healthy housing. Other measures for healthy housing such as mold or lead exposure were not available at the community level.
Accessible Housing
Lack of access to stable housing remains an acute problem in the State. Although homelessness can be brought on by a variety of different factors including the high cost of housing, domestic violence, mental illness, and chemical addition, it tends to disproportionately impact people of color. The State can better understand access to housing by continuing to measure homelessness.
Quality Housing
Affordable Housing
Healthy Housing
Accessible Housing
