Housing and Urban Heat: Assessing Risk Disparities

C. J. Gabbe, Evan Mallen and Alexander Varni

Housing Policy Debate, 2023, vol. 33, issue 5, 1078-1099

Abstract: Heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States, and housing characteristics affect heat-related mortality. This paper answers two questions. First, how do heat risk measures vary by housing type and location in San José, California? Second, what housing and neighborhood factors are associated with greater heat risk? We first create a parcel dataset with housing, heat risk, and neighborhood characteristics. We then use a combination of descriptive statistics, exploratory mapping, and linear regression models to analyze associations between housing, neighborhoods, and heat risk. The results indicate that households of different housing types face varying degrees of heat risk, and the largest disparities are between detached single-family (lowest heat risk) and multifamily rental (highest heat risk). Air conditioning availability is a major contributing factor: the probability of not having central air conditioning is much lower for detached single-family (44.9%) compared with multifamily rental (73.7%). There are also heat risk disparities for households in neighborhoods with larger proportions of Hispanic and Asian residents. This research demonstrates the need to understand heat risk at the parcel scale and suggests to policymakers the importance of heat mitigation strategies that focus on multifamily rental housing and communities of color.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:houspd:v:33:y:2023:i:5:p:1078-1099

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DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2022.2093938

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