Building healthy affordable homes : an assessment of the health dimensions of green communities’ building standards

Despite the considerable improvements in housing conditions during the last decade, housing still remains a critical determinant of one’s health. Broader social and environmental issues that are associated with housing and health problems have emerged. Such issues include neighborhood characteristics, individual behaviors and associated health outcomes, social backgrounds, and housing affordability as well as the physical conditions of housing. Many low-income families’ substandard housing conditions make them suffer from housing-related health problems more seriously. This report suggests a green affordable housing program, in particular Green Communities, as one of the solutions to address this issue. To understand how Green Communities affects one’s health, this report evaluates existing Green Communities’ criteria against housing health performance criteria that are developed based on a literature review. After the evaluation, this report suggests how current green affordable housing practices can be improved to be a health promotion tool.