On November 14 and 15, HSHE director Roshanak Mehdipanah, program manager Jamison Koeman, and doctoral candidate Kiana Bess presented at the Workshop on Housing and Obesity: Gaps, Opportunities, and Future Directions for Advancing Health Equity sponsored by the NIH, CDC, and HUD. The workshop showcased an increasing number of scholars researching at the intersection of housing and health.
Roshanak Mehdipanah presented her research on the Make It Home program in Detroit in a presentation called Helping Low-income Renters Become Homeowners through the “Make It Home” Program in Detroit.
Kiana Bess, a Health Education and Health Behavior PhD candidate and member of the HSHE team, presented "Examining Housing as a Determinant of Child Health: Does Housing Instability and Utility Impact Weight?"
Jamison Koeman presented “'Prescribing Housing' to Address a Social Determinant of Health" as part of the Housing Instability, Health Behaviors, and Health Outcomes breakout session.
"New research showing that housing insecurity negatively impacts health and healthcare costs indicates that healthcare and housing systems are interlinked," Koeman said. "In my talk, I explored some ways the healthcare system can address housing insecurity. I was so excited by the conference because it showed that the body of researchers working at the intersection of health and housing is growing and can help remedy the ills of the housing system."
The overall goal of the workshop was to accelerate research on the role of housing insecurity—including housing affordability, quality, stability, and its neighborhood context—on behaviors and pathways underlying risk for obesity-related health disparities across the lifespan.