Healthy Homes, Healthier Lives: Why Fixing Old Housing Could Save Public Health
Imagine a home where you expect safety and comfort, but instead you face invisible risks. That’s the reality for millions of American households. According to NCHH, more than 39 million U.S. housing units have at least one health hazard, from mold and pests to lead paint and poor ventilation.
Amanda Reddy, Executive Director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, calls this “a public-health intervention hiding in plain sight.”
“Housing can be a multi-solver. When we invest in healthy homes, we’re not just preventing harm to those families, we’re saving money, we’re creating jobs, we’re improving property values, we’re strengthening community resilience.”
Her two-part conversation with host Peter Stuart on the Finding Frequency podcast spans both the scale of the problem and the path forward, from hazards to hope.
The Housing Health Hazards We Overlook
Some standout numbers:
45 million metropolitan homes in the U.S. have one or more serious health or safety hazards. (NCHH, 2023)
About 24 million homes still contain lead-paint hazards.(APHA)
Roughly 20–30 % of asthma cases are linked to home environmental conditions. (APHA)
Older homes, poorly maintained systems, and rural wells or septic systems increase risk.
“By 2050, 75% of the homes we’ll live in have already been constructed today,” Amanda says. “There’s a huge opportunity to make smarter investments in the homes that people already live in.”
When “Green” Doesn’t Always Mean “Healthy”
Many assume “green building = healthy occupant.” Not always true. While energy efficiency is essential, it doesn’t guarantee good indoor air or safe materials.
A Harvard Healthy Buildings study found that while homeowners cite indoor air quality as their top concern, most lack actionable information. Tight, energy-efficient envelopes can trap pollutants if not paired with proper ventilation.
A truly healthy home is dry, clean, ventilated, safe, contaminant-free, and affordable.
Learn more about air quality in our episode with Simon Jones.
Why Housing Is a Matter of Health & Equity
“Housing is a key social determinant of health,” as recent research shows. (ScienceDirect, 2025)
“We should feel outraged that any parent anywhere feels like they have to choose between a roof over their head and their child’s health,” Amanda said, sharing a story of a mother in Syracuse who would have rather remained homeless than exposing her child to lead poisoning.
That moral urgency underscores the economic one: every $1 invested in lead hazard control returns ~$1.39 in societal benefits. (APHA)
The Path Forward: From Policy to Design
In Part 2 of the episode, Amanda explores how policy, incentives, and design can work together to make homes healthier for everyone.
Key solutions include:
Policy Tools and Standards: Strengthening housing codes through frameworks like the National Healthy Housing Standard helps fill gaps in property maintenance policies and establishes a baseline for safety and health across U.S. housing stock.
Health-Driven Design and Retrofits: Improving moisture control, material safety, and ventilation remains central to reducing exposure risks. Programs such as Enterprise Community Partners’ ventilation initiatives have demonstrated measurable reductions in indoor pollutants and improved health outcomes in low-income housing (Enterprise & NCHH, 2022).
Funding and Incentives for Change: States can leverage more than $50 billion in federal and state programs, including Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds, tax credits and utility rebates, to support health-focused retrofits that improve comfort, safety, and affordability. Some states are also using Medicaid authorities to cover housing-related services, connecting public health systems directly with safer, more resilient living environments.
Improving indoor environmental quality (IEQ) can even reduce missed school days by 15%. (World GBC, 2022)
What You Can Do Right Now
Even if you’re not a developer or policy-maker, as a designer, homeowner or occupant you can start making changes:
Perform a healthy-home checklist: check for damp/mold, ensure ventilation, inspect for lead (especially in older homes).
Advocate locally: talk to your housing authority, councilmember, or health department about healthy-home programs.
Choose materials mindfully: low-VOC paints, better indoor ventilation, moisture-resistant finishes.
Share your story: community awareness helps tie housing conditions to health outcomes and build momentum for change.
🎧Want to hear the full conversation?
Listen to Part 1 Episode 26 and Part 2 Episode 27 of Finding Frequency with Amanda Reddy to go deeper into these issues and solutions.
