ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the connection of geography and local conditions to health can be gauged by ever-emerging ways of gathering data.

“We funded a project in Atlanta looking at hospital admissions for injuries due to violence.  We tracked injuries resulting from violence on street, in parks, in public places and compared them to police reports,” he said.

“It shows how accurate is crime reporting.  It revealed a gap in reported versus actual incidents. 

People have an idea of what spaces are dangerous, but with the data – we can chart things to do, we can identify things to fix in a specific area.”

Based on data, RWJF has invested tens of millions of dollars in community development projects. 

The grants pay for restoring and empowering areas as small as a single block or half block. Improved socio-economic standing and access to healthy living has a positive impact on those communities – proven by data.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, noted that people don’t spend their entire day in their home neighborhood, so cell phone data can show where a person spends the day and how that could impact their health.

 

“During COVID, you could even use cell phone data to see how well distancing was practiced,” he said. 

“Twitter data can be used, as people develop ways to use it to track eating habits, socializing – combine it with survey results and you get a feel for how geography impacts health.”

 

 

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

RWJF’s Place Matters program in Cuyahoga County – home county of Cleveland, ravaged by job loss and housing stock deterioration -- funded partnerships focused on eliminating health disparities. 

The initiative defined health not as the absence of disease, but “where people live, work, learn, age and play. 

Health includes the social conditions one lives in, such as the jobs we do, the money we're paid, the schools we attend and the neighborhoods we live in, as well as our genes, our behaviors and our medical care.”

Statistics showed chilling numbers in the City of East Cleveland. Its poverty rate was 32 percent and the heart disease mortality rates was 32 percent higher than that of the nation. 

Taking a holistic approach, the team hosted two land use summits focused on integrating of health and equity into land use planning and community development decision-making.

 

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Place Matters program has looked at health disparities and the impact of racism in dozens of communities.

 

“When we saw in highly segregated areas, life expectancies in the mid-50s, but in the 80s at an affluent area right next door, we explored community development,” said George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at RWJF.

“We wanted to look at statistics to help us answer the question of how do we best invest in communities that have been disinvested in?”

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

 TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

“From my perspective of a public health researcher, investments that could improve health behaviors – such as building grocery stores, increasing exercise opportunities and discouraging smoking – could also increase life expectancy,” Jessica Owens-Young wrote, sharing how data can identify zip codes and neighborhoods in need of initiatives.

“Policies that promote economic prosperity and address the impacts of racial segregation – such as investments in quality education, safe and affordable housing, and improved public transportation – could also help.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a foundation focused on access to health care, public health, health equity, leadership and training, and changing systems to address barriers to health. 

With an endowment of $13 billion, the Princeton, New Jersey-based philanthropic organization has been using data to target community-focused grants for decades.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

“Neighborhoods with large black populations tend to have lower life expectancies than communities that are majority white, Hispanic or Asian. 

Such racial differences reflect the places in which different races live, not the individual characteristics of people themselves,” she reveals. 

“Research shows that black communities are less likely to have access to resources that promote health, like grocery stores with fresh foods, places to exercise and quality health facilities.

This is true even in middle-class neighborhoods.”

Research from the Census Bureau and researchers at Harvard and Brown universities shows children from places that are economically disadvantaged tend to have worse outcomes as adults. 

Jessica Owens-Young reports that research also proves that where local government spending is higher, life expectancies increase among those with lower incomes.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS 

Jessica Owens-Young, Assistant Professor of Health Studies at the American University, wrote her interpretation of data showed that at the neighborhood level, longevity differences are sometimes even more drastic, appearing even when communities are only a few miles apart.

“In Washington, D.C., for example, people living in the Barry Farms neighborhood face a life expectancy of 63.2 years. Yet, less than 10 miles away, a baby born in Friendship Heights and Friendship Village can expect to live 96.1 years, according to CDC data,” she stated.

Owens-Young concludes land use, public policy and civic neglect as causes that leave black populations without the amenities needed to live long, healthy lives.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

Being born in the wrong ZIP code can shorten your life – is the jarring headline in a story about disparity published in The Conversation by Jessica Owens-Young, Assistant Professor of Health Studies at the American University.

 

The average live expectancy in the U.S. is 78.8 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

“However, life expectancy varies widely across geography. A child born in Mississippi today could expect to never reach his or her 75th birthday. 

But a child born in California, Hawaii or New York could expect to reach their expect to live into the early 80s,” Owens-Young wrote. 

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

Ben McAdams, who served as Mayor of Salt Lake County and in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the housing crisis could be greatly addressed if a combination of affordable and market rate housing were developed on city sites.

He said revenue from other development – where the city would continue to own the land and get a share of the profit plus enjoy revenue from land now on the tax rolls – could fund social services and infrastructure that also could be targeted for closing the wealth and homeownership gap found in cities throughout America.

“Understanding data that can help communities see what they have and how they can use it to solve some of their greatest challenges,” he said.

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Ben McAdams, who served as Mayor of Salt Lake County and in the U.S. House of Representatives, a Senior Fellow at the Sorenson Impact Center, housed at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. 

The center, with partners, is Putting Assets to Work Incubator to identify, map, and plan uses for underutilized government owned assets in various cities.

While mayor, McAdams worked with Urban3 to identify $13 billion in underutilized assets, such as city parking lots and obsolete properties, that could be worth up to $45 billion if co-developed with the private sector and Salt Lake City. 

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

To address the inequity, South Bend revamped its zoning ordinance to allow more Missing Middle -- include duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, townhouses, multiplexes, and live/work units – housing that tends to be more affordable and better at serving diverse communities. 

South Bend won, in 2021, the 15th annual Richard H. Driehaus Award from the Form-Based Codes Institute at Smart Growth America for its new code aimed at addressing housing and investment inequity.

To further repair areas damaged by redlining and lack of private investment dating back to the 1960s, South Bend will grant $20,000 to cover the cost of connecting a property to the main sewer line – for homes built in urban infill areas.

Another ordinance prohibits extending new sewer lines into the County, to prevent subsidizing sprawl development into the fringe.

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“The output of the data showed suburban development doesn’t pay – it’s a potential revenue looser,” Tim Corcoran, city of South Bend, said. 

“Our urban areas were generating tremendously more value than suburban areas.

“Redlining devalued some urban areas, but the numbers prove that even some of our poorer neighborhoods were generating more value per acre than some of the wealthy areas.”

Corcoran said too many cities believe sprawled growth will help rather than deplete their budgets.

Cities create inequity by spending less on core areas viewed as decaying or too poor to spur investment.

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

Tim Corcoran is the Director of Planning & Community Resources in the Department of Community Investment for the City of South Bend, IN.

And yes, for the record, he was hired by former mayor/presidential candidate turned U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

South Bend hired Urban3 to explore the disparity that happens when cities spend heavily on sprawl-based development rather than focusing on urban infill and supporting the more valuable existing and potential development in the urban core.

INEQUITY REVEALED

HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

Steve O’Connor, MBA’s Senior Vice President for Affordable Housing Initiatives, said data proves out vast inequity and data will be used to produce quantitative and qualitative measures of Convergence Columbus’ success.

 

“Part of what we’re trying to do is raise awareness around tools in the marketplace now -- programs for lenders to advance affordiblity,” he said.

Think of it like college scholarships that go unused.

There are down payment assistance and other programs that consumers aren’t aware of, that even some real estate pros aren’t aware of.”

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) represents more than 2,200 member companies and is the national association representing all facets of the real estate finance MBA’s Home for All Pledge represents the “industry's long-term commitment on a sustained and holistic approach to address racial inequities in housing.”

The effort to ensure fair, equitable and responsible lending and affordable rental housing for minorities includes place-based Convergence programs. Converge started in Memphis in 2020 and added Columbus in 2021.

 “These initiatives are about getting direct stakeholder input into the design and solutions.

These are pilots, we are experimenting with place-based solutions that come from the community. 

We know what’s been tried hasn’t worked well enough.

There’s a 30-point gap in home ownership between white and black/Hispanic households,” Steve O’Connor, MBA’s Senior Vice President for Affordable Housing Initiatives, said of Convergence’s role in narrowing that gap.

INEQUITY REVEALED

HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

Starting in 2019, the federal government began sharing mortgage data used to measure how well applicants manage their debt and how much of the property’s overall value is being financed. Those are two of the biggest factors lenders use before making a home loan. 

The Markup used the data to show continuing inequity even a half century after The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it illegal to deny someone housing based on race or other protected categories.

“We found 89 metropolitan areas, spanning every region of the country, where lenders were more likely to deny people of color conventional mortgages than White people with similar financial characteristics,” The Markup reported, when it analyzed local data along with national numbers. 

“Of the biggest metropolitan areas, Chicago, had one of the widest disparities: Black applicants there were 150 percent more likely to be denied than White applicants.”

Despite exhaustive reporting backed by independent expert data analysts, much of the lending industry has disputed The Markup’s findings.

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it illegal to deny someone housing based on race or other protected categories. 

Despite the law, The Markup found, people of color continue to be denied mortgages at higher rates than their white counterparts.

“We found that nationwide, Black applicants are nearly twice as likely to be denied conventional mortgages as similarly qualified White applicants,” the report stated.

“Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American applicants are also more likely to be denied mortgages at higher rates than White ones, even when they have the same financial characteristics.”

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA 

“All of those things add up over the course of a person’s lifetime and give us this massive wealth inequality,” Crislip, now Executive Director at The Richmond Forum, told the Mercury.

The Mercury underscored inequality by sharing U.S. Census Bureau stats that non-Hispanic White households had a median wealth of more than $139,000. 

“That compared with less than $13,000 for Black households and $20,000 for Hispanic households. 

A key factor, the report said, is that most non-Hispanic White households owned their homes,” the Mercury stated.

The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom of quantitative journalists that pursue meaningful, data-driven investigations.

In 2021, the team researched racial disparities in federal mortgage data.

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

The Virginia Mercury, an independent, nonprofit online news organization, covered the generational negatives impacts that African American families are subject to because of inequity in lending.

The Mercury reported: “Because homeownership is central to creating wealth, the racial disparities in homeownership represent `the bedrock of wealth inequality in America and in Richmond,’ said Heather Mullins Crislip, then president of HOME, which provides classes and counseling for prospective homebuyers.”

The 2020 Mercury report shared painfully unjust data-proven facts shared by Crislip, noting  African Americans:

• Are far less likely than Whites to ever own a home.

• Buy their first home on average nine years later in life than Whites (and thus enjoy less appreciation in value).

• Are more likely to buy a home in a racially segregated area that won’t appreciate as much.

• Often pay more interest or other costs for their home loan.

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HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HEALTHY LIVING GAPS ONCE IDENTIFIED BY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE PROVEN THROUGH FINE-GRADE DATA

“We have to put density in our city because of the light rail station. Around the station, along the freeway that the rail line will hug – we have to make it all multifamily,” said Kyoko Matsumoto Wright, a REALTOR with Coldwell Banker Bain and mayor of Mountlake Terrace, reminding that density does not equal skyscraper height.

“I’d love to allow all single family to allow duplexes and ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) at least. 

The issue is the older people, who have been here 40-50 years, they like the bedroom community. 

They vote. 

The younger, newer people who support a diverse housing inventory, they don’t (vote).”