Vice Provost for Urban Research and Community Engagement and Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Jason Reece has published “A History Of The Impacts Of Discriminatory Policies On Housing And Maternal And Infant Health In An Ohio Neighborhood” in Health Affairs. The article’s co-authors are Kierra S. Barnett, Brittany M. Mosley, Mikyung Baek, Ayaz Hyder, Kelly Kelleher, Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, and Deena J. Chisolm.

Community-level disinvestment and de facto segregation rooted in decades of discriminatory race-based policies and racism have resulted in unacceptably large infant mortality rates in racial minority neighborhoods across the US. Most community development and housing work, implemented with the goal of addressing health and social inequalities, is designed to tackle current challenges in the condition of neighborhoods without a race-conscious lens assessing structural racism and discrimination. Using one historically segregated neighborhood—Linden, in Columbus, Ohio—we detail how state and local policies have affected the neighborhood and shaped neighborhood-level demographics and resources during the past 100 years. We explore how structural racism–and discrimination-informed strategic community reinvestment could provide a solution and yield lasting change.

Read more at Health Affairs