Historical Redlining and Community-Reported Housing Quality: A Spatial Analysis

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Urban Planning
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Historical redlining, a discriminatory US housing practice from the 1930s, has known environmental impacts.
• Research on the link between historical redlining and current housing quality is limited.
• Understanding this relationship is crucial for addressing the legacy of structural racism in urban environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between historical redlining and contemporary housing quality in Atlanta, Georgia.
• To quantify the risk of housing code violation complaints in historically redlined areas.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed spatial patterns of 48,626 housing code violation complaints (2015-2019) using point-pattern and spatial cluster analyses.
• Employed Bayesian hierarchical models to assess the relationship between historical redlining and housing complaints.
• Adjusted for neighborhood characteristics including poverty, median structure age, property vacancy/rental status, and racial segregation.

Main Results:

• Historically redlined neighborhoods showed a 167% increased risk of housing code complaints compared to 'best' or 'still desirable' areas.
• A significant increase in 'hazardous' housing complaints was observed in redlined neighborhoods (1.94 times higher risk).
• Spatial analysis confirmed disproportionately higher rates of housing code violations in historically redlined areas.

Conclusions:

• Historical redlining is a significant predictor of poor contemporary housing quality, evidenced by higher housing code violation rates.
• These findings highlight the persistent environmental injustice stemming from structural racism.
• Spatial analysis of housing complaints can inform targeted interventions to mitigate the long-term impacts of redlining.