PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center on Health in Housing
Houses in Buffalo, NY.
The Center on Health in Housing is a collaboration between the School of Public Health and Health Professions and the School of Architecture and Planning; it is administered by the OGHI. Through their work with the Center, faculty from across UB share their expertise on accessible housing, environmental exposures, food systems and healthy neighborhoods with the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization.
WHO webinar: Supporting a Strategic Approach to Urban Health
Collaborating Center on Health in Housing co-director Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah moderated the WHO webinar "Supporting a strategic approach to urban health" on June 18, 2024. The webinar launched four recent WHO policy briefs addressing strategic approaches to urban health, on the topics of: generating and working with evidence; governance and financing; innovation; and partnerships and participation. Frimpong Boamah, who was involved in developing the policy briefs, was joined by WHO Urban Health Unit Head Nathalie Roebbel and other experts on the webinar.
In this webinar, Collaborating Center faculty Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, LCSW, and PhD student Meghan Holtan discussed some of the challenges on housing and health in the Americas region from PAHO’s perspective and introduced attendees to research and concepts to help understand the ways in which housing and health are closely related. They presented five major pathways linking housing and health: housing quality and condition; residential stability and security, including the health implications of homelessness and migration; housing affordability; neighborhood context; and social connection and care. Additionally, they discussed the key global policy implications of the relationship between housing and health, including the importance of health equity; the concept of the right to housing; and the value of trauma-informed and co-designed housing structures, programs, and services.
Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, LCSW is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work. Her research addresses housing as a social determinant of health, with a focus on stigma, food insecurity, chronic disease management, and addiction recovery for people experiencing homelessness. Bowen’s research is rooted in her social work practice experience managing harm reduction-based permanent supportive housing programs in Chicago, IL, USA. Bowen aims to promote health equity and liberation through her work and partnerships.
Meghan Holtan is a researcher, artist, and mother from Anchorage, Alaska. Currently a PhD student in Urban and Regional Planning, her doctoral research focuses on the relationship between housing and health equity in a changing climate. Before her PhD, she worked as a planning consultant across Alaska and the Mountain West on projects ranging from affordable housing development to public health for Alaska Native tribal organizations, public agencies, nonprofits, and private industry.
About the Center
The OGHI oversees administration of the Center on Health in Housing, a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) / World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research on Healthy Settings. The Center on Health in Housing was first designated a collaborating centre in 1988, and Center leadership apply for re-designation every four years. Both in the past and today, the center engages faculty from across the university on topics such as water, sanitation and hygiene, accessible home environments, housing security and stability, environmental exposures in the home environment and healthy neighborhoods. Faculty also contribute to WHO initiatives, such as the 2018 WHO Housing and Health Guidelines, which identified housing-related health concerns worldwide and recommended changes for housing policies at multiple levels.
Leadership and Contributing Faculty
The Center on Health in Housing is co-lead by faculty from the School of Public Health and Health Professions and the School of Architecture and Planning.
Co-directors
Lina Mu, MD, PhD
Co-Director, Collaborating Center on Health in Housing
Director, Office of Global Health Initiatives
Associate Professor, Dept. of Epidemiology & Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions
Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, PhD
Co-director, Collaborating Center on Health in Housing
Co-Director, Community for Global Health Equity
Associate Professor, Dept. of Urban & Regional Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
PAHO highlights recent webinar
Read more about April's webinar featuring UB experts on PAHO's news webpage.