Health Affairs April 2, 2024
Substandard housing is associated with increased risks of mental illness, chronic and infectious disease, and other harms. In theory, city housing inspection can be a powerful tool to break the link between poor housing and poor health. But in practice, housing inspection falls far short of its potential. Inspectional practices are not as efficient, effective, or equitable as they could be in identifying and responding to public health threats.
Today, city housing inspectors’ work is to visually inspect properties to identify conditions that violate minimum standards for health and safety and use citations and fines to bring about compliance. Many of the housing codes on which inspection is based originated in the Sanitary Reform Movement of the late 1800s. Requirements...
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