Housing

Housing can contribute positively to people’s mental and physical health – but all too frequently it does not. Find out more about the links between housing and health and explore trends and inequalities in housing across different groups and types of tenures

Housing affordability is the extent to which a household can meet the direct and indirect costs of housing, which includes rent and mortgage repayments, council tax and utilities. Housing affordability is associated with housing security, but can also contribute directly to poorer mental health through stress and anxiety.

Affordability problems can also contribute to overcrowding as households seek to share the fixed costs of accommodation across more individuals. Affordability can also create pressure on other elements of household expenditure associated with health, such as food or social participation.

Explore trends and inequalities in housing affordability

Housing quality relates to the actual physical state of a property and how suitable it is for the residents. This can encompass a wide range of potential flaws, such as lacking sufficient insulation, being damp or mouldy, or containing risks such as trip hazards. Poor housing conditions can also include overcrowding, such as when a home is not suitable for the actual number of inhabitants.

The following examples of poor housing conditions can directly affect health.

• Hazards reflect potential sources of injury or harm in households, such as the potential for trips or falls, electrical problems or fire risk. Around a third of accidents to adults happen in the home and falls are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults.
• Damp in the home can affect respiratory health, which is often caused by poor ventilation and leads to the spread of mould and fungi. This can result in asthma and the proliferation of allergens and toxins. The prevalence of coughing and wheezing is also found to be higher in damp homes.
• Insufficient warmth in the home is influenced by levels of insulation, among other factors. Excess deaths have been shown to be three times higher in the coldest 25% of houses than the warmest.  There is a connection between low household energy efficiency and excess winter deaths, both between the UK and other countries and between areas  within the UK. Cold temperatures in the home are associated with respiratory diseases as well as higher blood pressure.
• Overcrowding is typically measured by assessing the number of people in a household against a bedroom standard of how many rooms they need. Overcrowding can place strain on family relationships, reduce privacy and limit the space for children to study or play. There is some evidence of it affecting self-rated health and respiratory conditions, as well as psychological distress.

Some studies have evaluated how improvements in housing conditions affect health. A study in Wales that matched data on housing interventions to hospital utilisation found that bringing homes up to national housing standards resulted in considerable reductions in emergency hospital admissions for cardiorespiratory conditions and injuries. Interventions addressing inadequate warmth were considered the most effective in improving health in a meta-study, particularly when they were focused on those groups with pre-existing conditions.

Explore trends and inequalities in housing quality

Housing security is the degree to which people feel certainty in remaining in their home: the continuity and constancy to life that a secure home can bring can be protective of health. This relates strongly to housing affordability, and the ability of a household to afford mortgage or rent payments. In extreme situations, housing insecurity can manifest in homelessness or rough sleeping, which can result in even more severe health consequences.

One study in the UK found that mortgage repossessions were associated with a decline in mental health, but evictions were not, possibly because insecurity was already ‘priced in’ for renters. Other UK research finds arrears, housing payment problems and imminent eviction/repossession to have a considerable cost to psychological wellbeing, with the effects being larger for homeowners who have made larger financial and emotional investments in their home than more mobile renters. US research has also found that cost-related moves and housing arrears are related to anxiety and depression.

Another study found the importance of housing tenure and housing type (houses versus flats) to health using biomarker data, with private renters found to have poorer health than home owners with a mortgage. In terms of housing type, the study reported that living in flats or terraced houses was associated with worse health than detached homes. This could be due to residents having less control or autonomy over their home, and potentially less access to green space. Housing tenure matters because private renters in the UK have less legal protection for eviction than social renters or mortgage holders, and the end of private sector tenancies are associated with homelessness applications.

Explore trends and inequalities in housing stability and security

Homelessness refers to people who lack stable accommodation of their own, and includes situations when people are still in shelter, such as squatting or staying with friends, as well as those sleeping rough. Sleeping rough is particularly associated with greatly elevated levels of early mortality.

Homelessness can interact with health in multiple ways: some health problems contribute to homelessness, others are caused by homelessness. Homelessness can also complicate the treatment of health problems and be associated with worse health outcomes.

Overall, the experience of homelessness harms mental health, and shelter when available may be overcrowded and poor quality, which can also harm health directly.