Housing
Quality | Affordability | Homelessness | Multiple problems
About 4 mins
Why housing matters for health
Our homes are fundamental to our health and wellbeing. A healthy home is affordable, warm and provides security. It’s somewhere safe that meets the needs of everyone in the household, and helps us connect to community, work and services.
If our home doesn’t meet these essential needs, there are direct and indirect effects on our health.
Poor quality housing that is damp or cold, or in a poor state of repair, can contribute to acute health problems or injuries.
Unaffordable housing leaves less money for other essentials that influence health, such as food and heating. Unaffordable housing can also cause chronic stress, as can having to move frequently due to housing instability or insecurity.
Housing has historically played an important part in policies to improve health, such as seeking to prevent the spread of infectious disease in the 19th century by improving sanitation and reducing overcrowding.
How does housing quality affect health?
A decent home is a foundation for a healthy life. The quality or condition of our home can directly affect our health.
A poor-quality or ‘non-decent’ home could be damp, cold, outdated or dilapidated. Poor-quality and unsafe homes put people’s health at risk in several ways, including injuries from hazards, or respiratory problems because of damp or inadequate heating. Excess deaths (the difference between the estimated and actual number of deaths) in the coldest 25% of homes, have been up to three times higher than in the warmest.
Improving the condition of our homes can make a real difference to our health and wellbeing. A study in Wales found that bringing homes up to national housing standards resulted in considerable reductions in emergency hospital admissions for cardiorespiratory conditions and injuries. Another study found that interventions to warm homes were most effective in improving health, particularly when focused on people with pre-existing health conditions.
How does housing affordability affect health?
Housing affordability is how much financial pressure we face from housing costs, which include our rent or mortgage, and bills for utilities and maintenance. The cost of housing can have an impact on our health and wellbeing.
When housing is too expensive, it can affect our health directly. For example, struggling to pay our rent or mortgage can cause stress and harm our mental health.
It can also affect our health indirectly. For example, spending a large part of our income on housing means there’s less left for other things that help keep us healthy, like nutritious food, exercise and time with friends. At worst, unaffordable housing can lead to homelessness.
People on low incomes are often hit hardest by high housing costs. Even the cheapest housing options can still take up a large share of income. This financial pressure can lead to overcrowding, as families or individuals share space to cut costs. Living in cramped conditions can further affect our health and quality of life, making it harder to sleep, relax or avoid the spread of illness.
How do homelessness, housing insecurity and lack of stable housing affect health?
Becoming homeless and living in temporary accommodation can be an extremely stressful experience, linked to mental and physical health problems. Housing stability and security is about how much control we have over how long we live in our homes, and how secure we feel.
A secure, comfortable home enriches our lives and supports our mental and physical health. But high costs and a shortage of affordable homes mean many of us have to live in poor and overcrowded conditions, fall into debt because costs are too high, move frequently, or may face repossessions or evictions.
The increasing number of households in temporary accommodation since 2011 highlights the consequences of reducing both housing benefit and funding to councils – people cannot afford their housing costs and councils do not have enough funding for homelessness prevention.
In addition, strong social networks and relationships are important to our health. Frequently having to move makes it hard for us to engage with health services and other local services, and weakens our relationships in the local community.
How do multiple housing problems affect health?
Problems with housing conditions, security and affordability often happen at the same time, creating a compounded burden. Each of these issues on their own can affect health, for example, poor quality housing can increase respiratory illness, overcrowding can increase the spread of illness, and unaffordable costs can lead to financial strain and stress. When these problems overlap, they expose individuals, families or households to multiple risks at once, and they may have greater impact on our physical and mental health.
