Past and Present Racial Inequities, Housing and Health in the USA

Summary

In the United States, a long history of racial residential segregation policies and practices has contributed to residential patterns and differential housing access, created present-day separate and unequal housing markets, produced gaps in homeownership and value, and ultimately contributed to racial/ethnic inequities in health through a multitude of systems and pathways. Structural racism, specifically racial capitalism, has been a key contributor to these differential housing exposures by race/ethnicity in the United States. Racism is a fundamental cause of health inequities, as racism influences access to resources, such as housing, through many replaceable mechanisms, which, in turn, influence health. Racialized housing practices and policies have served to enact and reinforce racial hierarchy in the United States and have contributed to health inequities through pathways, such as the neighborhood economic, physical, chemical, and social environment, and individual-level exposure to variable housing conditions, affordability, and stability. These neighborhood- and individual-level exposures may be incorporated into the biology of individuals to produce racial inequities in health.