Los Angeles slum housing health crisis

Apr 22 2010

Over three hundred community members, stakeholders, and public health workers joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas for a People's Hearing on Slum Housing and the unveiling of a position paper documenting the health crisis related to slum housing in Los Angeles.

The position paper documented two years of work by the Healthy Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Collaborative. The collaborative includes medical professionals, community health workers, tenant organizers, and human rights advocates. Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), St. John's Well Child and Family Center, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), and Esperanza Community Housing Corporation make up the unique collaborative. Other panelists for the event included: CRA Board Member Joan Ling; Los Angeles Housing Department Director of Code Enforcement Domingo Sauceda; Tina Hess, Supervising Assistant City Attorney; and Ken Murray, Bureau Director of Environmental Health for the LA County Department of Public Health.

A survey of 140 tenants by the collaborative found that 45% of tenant units had mold; 75% had cockroaches; 40% had rats or mice, compared to 7% nationwide. When asked about their health the same group of tenants reported significant rates of slum housing related illnesses including: 49% had chronic allergic symptoms; 42% had chronic skin rashes; 25% reported suffering asthma and one of every 7 asthmatics reported wheezing every night in the previous two weeks; 15% reported family members who had suffered lead toxicity.

Intensifying the problem is the public system in Los Angeles to monitor and enforce housing codes, which is ineffective, inconsistent and does not result in consequences that change the behavior of professional and criminal landlords. The collaborative set out to improve individual health outcomes and environmental health conditions in targeted buildings, improve housing and health practices and government alignment, and increase the power of tenants to change policy and practices. Of the 3,150 families in the pilot project properties, more than 90% experienced major improvements in living conditions and 100% reported an improvement in their health. One significant outcome of the collaborative's work was securing a commitment from the City Attorney's office to dedicate resources to large, criminal slumlord activity.