The way we design neighborhoods can help – or hurt – our health. The location of our homes and businesses, the quality of sidewalks and streets, community programs and public safety – all can influence health and quality of life issues from access to healthy food to strong connections with neighbors.
Understanding this, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC) proposed the Healthy Neighborhoods Equity Fund (HNEF). The HNEF will invest in developments intended to transform neighborhoods, strengthen population and environmental health, and promote regional equity, while providing investors with financial and social returns.
To help guide the proposed private equity fund, MAPC, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), conducted a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) that examines the potential health impacts of community development, such as transit-oriented development (TOD), that could result from the HNEF. − Kate Ito, MAPC Public Health Division
The HIA focused on 12 ways that TOD can affect health. These focus areas, called pathways, can affect health outcomes and chronic conditions such as obesity, stress, mental health, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, injuries, and premature mortality.
We analyzed how each of these health and wellbeing pathways could be affected, positively or negatively, by a TOD, and made recommendations.
Not only did this HIA make explicit connections between community development/TOD and health and help develop the health metrics of the HNEF, but it has also given the entire MAPC a greater awareness of how neighborhood health is affected by any plan or policy.
