# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dallas city, Texas; Dallas County, Texas

QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more.

Dashboard - Dallas city, Texas

Population Estimates, July 1, 2022, (V2022)

For places on the map, populations of 5,000 or more are shown

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Dallas city, Texas; Dallas County, Texas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Frequently requested statistics for: Dallas city, Texas; Dallas County, Texas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in 75216, TX: Crime Maps and Statistics | CrimeGrade.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dallas' income and housing gap in two maps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Image courtesy of the City of Dallas Department of Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization The median income in Dallas is now $60,340 for a single person or $86,200 for a family of four. Median income is the metric that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/502901/fpubh-08-00071-HTML/image_m/fpubh-08-00071-g001.jpg

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Food Access Research Atlas (formerly the Food Desert Locator) is a mapping tool that provides a spatial overview of food access indicators by census tract, allowing users to investigate multiple indicators of food store access.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States - Statistical Atlas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Statistical Atlas: The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
City-Data.com - Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, crime, house prices, cost of living, races, home value estimator, recent sales, income, photos, schools, maps, weather, neighborhoods, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gluck + Builds Amenities for New York’s Underserved Communities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With architecture and construction expertise, GLUCK+ brings top-quality design to the non-profits and public institutions in underserved communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kendra Hyson is a 2015 Olmsted Scholar from the University of Arizona and a Washington, D.C. native. Following her return to the East Coast, LAF caught up with Kendra to learn about her new role as Program Coordinator at the Neighborhood Design Center.
What is the Neighborhood Design Center and what do you do there?
The Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) is a nonprofit organization that provides access to pro bono design services in traditionally underserved communities throughout the city of Baltimore and Prince George's (PG) County, Maryland. NDC was established in 1968 in response to a charge put forth by Urban League Executive Director Whitney Young at the 100th Convention of the American Institute of Architects, which occurred just two months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and the ensuing riots: "You share responsibility for the mess we are in. Get involved in helping cities rebuild or risk the consequences."

At NDC we believe that everyone should have access to great design; the design process should be inclusive and community-driven; social justice, environmental sustainability, and community character are at the heart of developing healthy equitable neighborhoods; and the most productive partnerships come out of unlikely alliances. The NDC team includes landscape architects, architects, social designers, natural resource specialists, financiers, and administrative staff. NDC's main office is in Baltimore and I'm a Project Coordinator in the Hyattsville, Maryland office.

My role is landscape architecture-focused, and a large portion of my work includes community engagement. I coordinate volunteer professionals on projects and facilitate engagement through meetings and workshops. Sometimes, I also get to do design work.

Much of our community engagement process is predicated on helping our clients discover what it is they really want to gain out of a particular project. We highlight ways in which a project can achieve the desired environmental, social, and economic goals while staying true to the community's character and sense of place. Most of the Hyattsville office's projects are in PG County, and our clients and partners include local government officials, schools, municipalities, the PG Department of the Environment, Department of Public Works and Transportation, and other nonprofit organizations.
What projects are you currently working on?
I currently have around 15 projects, all in varying phases and with different objectives. There are some standout projects that have interesting components and stakeholders. For example, we are working with Community Forklift, a nonprofit reuse center for home improvement supplies. They want to transform their existing parking lot into a "Reuse Art Park". The project is at the kick-off site for the new Port Towns Eco-District and will include a parking lot made entirely of permeable pavers, an art walk showcasing art made from reused/recycled material, two large rain gardens, and a focus on environmental preservation. The Port Towns Eco-District and the Reuse Art Park project will be highlighted at this year's DesignDC (2017) conference.
What do you like most about your job?
Besides the amazing people I work with, I love connecting with communities. The collaborative approach involved in our process allows for more meaningful and long-lasting design. Traveling down the path of discovery with the client is the part that is most enjoyable for me. I live for those moments when you and the client are collaborating and your ideas and intentions start to align and move full steam ahead towards one synthesized design. I love those aha moments.

I also enjoy the fact that my job has so much diversity. Diversity of project type, scale, community, landscape - no two projects are ever quite the same. That variety keeps me excited about going to work every day. One day I am developing design plans and cost options for a community memorial garden; the next day I am conducting a tree inventory with a Park and Planning forester or attending a community meeting for an urban farm; and other days I am out conducting site visits at schools to help create planting plans to aid in campus sustainability programs. Never would I have imagined finding a position that so perfectly aligns with my personal and professional goals as a landscape designer. I feel very lucky to be a part of the NDC team and I am extremely grateful to be doing the things I love.
How can other designers get involved with the Neighborhood Design Center?
So glad you asked this question! NDC is always looking for volunteers. Our volunteers are a fundamental part of our pro bono design work and really help to define our impact as an organization. Our Community Design Works program is a wonderful opportunity for designers and related professionals (architects, landscape architects, urban planners, environmentalists, graphic designers, etc.) to participate in the community engagement design process. Feel free to check out our website for information about our current projects and upcoming volunteer opportunities.
What else are you up to now that you are back in the Washington, D.C. area?
Outside of working for NDC, I am really focused on becoming more deeply connected to the design networks here. There are so many new and interesting things related to landscape architecture happening in the city these days that I am really focused on getting back into the mix. I'm hoping to become more involved with diversity and equity initiatives taking place around the city, too.

As far as what I enjoy most, I am really just enjoying being back home. It seems as though there are so few native Washingtonians here anymore that I take much pride in being a true local. With all of the change and development taking place in the city, I feel that I have a skill set and perspective both as a landscape architect and a local that is beneficial to the city and its progress. It is my hometown. My family is here, my memories are here, and I will always have a special place in my heart for D.C. They say charity begins at home, so I figured why not begin my journey as a landscape architecture professional here. At the end of the day, I just want to help make a difference in my own community, and hopefully, that impact spreads.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Empowering Communities Through Design: Kendra Hyson

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A 2015 Olmsted Scholar discusses her work at the Neighborhood Design Center facilitating pro bono design.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Apply to CCA

CCA's blend of theory and practice inspires students at every level to make work that matters. Select your status to learn about the application process, requirements, and deadlines, as well as contact information should you need any support along the way.

Can you use your degree in architecture or interior design to make the world a better place? The answer is a resounding "Yes!" Today, thought leaders in the field are approaching architectural design with an eye not only to aesthetics and environmental sustainability, but also to social equity. They are asking themselves, "What does a socially responsible architectural practice look like?"

The images of houses you see in the glossy pages of magazines and FOMO-inducing pics on Instagram might leave the impression that the design field is exclusively focused on providing luxurious spaces for privileged clients. But architectural design can be a tool to improve the well-being of all communities. "Architecture and interior design can imagine and create alternative futures," says Amy Campos, chair of the interior design program at California College of the Arts (CCA).

Seeking to improve the ways we live, work, and interact with one another through architectural design has a long history. Famous examples include model villages and utopian housing complexes in the nineteenth century and ideal cities dreamed up by Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier in the twentieth. These projects were born out of attempts to grapple with some of the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution, such as overcrowded cities, unhealthy housing, and poor working conditions.

Today, many architects are exploring how architectural design can respond to the major challenges of our times, including social and economic inequality. They recognize that inequities based on wealth, race, gender, and physical ability are reinforced by patterns of land use and ownership, the organization of our cities and suburbs, and the design of our dwellings and their interiors.

Examples of projects that improve social equity through architectural design include cohousing with shared common spaces, schools in low-income neighborhoods that incorporate healthcare services, barrier-free facilities for veterans with disabilities, neighborhoods where vacant ground-floor retail spaces are repurposed for community services, and solar energy cooperatives.

"As designers, we need to be agents of change," says Antje Steinmuller, chair of the undergraduate program in architecture at CCA. "Architects and interior designers can play a part in shaping both the spaces and the policies of the built environment. We can leverage our skills toward environmental, political, and social justice."

Inclusive architectural design addresses social inequities

"Architecture, at its root, shapes lives. It has real social repercussions, so it must be inclusive, " says Brian Price, chair of the graduate program in architecture at CCA.

Architectural design that treats all users equally while acknowledging their differences, often called equitable architecture, is a growing field of socially responsible architectural practice.

Equitable architecture is proactively inclusive of all people-of different socioeconomic statuses, physical abilities, genders, family types, sexual orientations and gender expressions, races, and ethnicities-and acknowledges the ways architecture and interior design have not served their needs in the past. It focuses on creating affordable and fair housing, healthy and safe communities, and welcoming and accessible public spaces.

Designing for equity also means putting people first. "Equitable architecture begins with learning about the people we are designing for," says Campos. "As designers, we always start with understanding communities as they are. It informs everything we do."

Architectural design can promote environmental and social justice

"When architects think about equitable design, we first think about unequal access to land and housing among historically disenfranchised communities and disadvantaged populations," says Steinmuller.

Steinmuller codirects the Urban Works Agency research lab at CCA, which is directly engaged with initiatives that tackle inequities in the built environment. Through research, exhibitions, publications, symposia, studio courses, and design projects, it aims to reorient architectural design toward environmental and social justice and economic resilience.

Exclusionary practices, from redlining to single-family zoning, and the commodification of land have had lasting effects on patterns of property ownership and residential settlement in the U.S. In the American South, for example, minority populations tend to live in areas historically prone to flooding.

"Marginalized communities are often concentrated in areas most threatened by rising sea levels and other negative pressures from climate change and environmental degradation," says Steinmuller. She cites the example of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, a low-lying neighborhood with insufficient levee protection that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the hurricane, its population was 98% African American; today, more than 15 years later, the area has yet to fully recover and the families who lived there remain dispersed.

The work of CCA's Urban Works Agency shows how architectural design can address these interrelated issues of environmental and social justice. For example, the agency has examined how inclusive approaches to property ownership, such as community land trusts, can support both social equity and ecological sustainability. It has also proposed new forms of urbanism to redistribute resources more equitably across California's agricultural Central Valley in response to the planned construction of high-speed rail.

Collective ownership and management of resources is another strategy for improving social equity. This was a centerpiece of a project for the San Leandro Bay shoreline, called Estuary Commons, that the Urban Works Agency submitted for the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge. In partnership with other design professionals and students, as well as local community groups, the agency proposed innovative design solutions to both rising sea levels and rising home prices in this underserved Bay Area community. The project included tunneling a major freeway and building floating neighborhoods on pontoons as ways to protect communities from flooding, restore native habitats, stitch together a patchwork urban fabric, and provide a network of parks.

Rethinking our definition of home can impact social equity

Housing forms the majority of our built environment, so redesigning where people live is a powerful way to improve the well-being of individuals and communities. "We need to use architectural design to develop more equitable approaches to living together," says Price.

We are currently navigating a mismatch between available housing and the ways we actually live, which is one cause of the current housing crisis in California and elsewhere. Housing in our cities and suburbs has been designed around the traditional nuclear family-a stay-at-home mom, a dad who works outside the home, and multiple children-but that family unit is no longer the only, or even the predominant, model in the U.S.

According to estimates from the most recent U.S. census, in fact, fewer than 18% of American households consist of married parents with children. Instead, we live in multigenerational households, single-parent families, and with one or more unrelated roommates-and a whopping 28% of us live alone. Increasingly, homes are becoming offices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, homes also became classrooms.

"The overwhelming majority of housing in the U.S. takes the form of single-family houses on private land," says Price. "But not only is that not sustainable in terms of resource use, it doesn't provide for diverse kinds of households." Price offers the example of San Francisco: most of its existing housing was designed with the nuclear family in mind, but today 70% of city residents live in other types of households.

This disconnect between architecture and society creates opportunities for architects and interior designers to reimagine cities and housing. Discovering what "home" really means to different people can lead to more equitable housing solutions.

"The research of many of the architecture and interior design faculty at CCA focuses on how people live together in communities, and how that is changing," says Price. "We are rethinking human relationships and the conventions of the urban and suburban built environments."

Diverse housing typologies attract more diverse residents

Instead of continuing to design cookie-cutter single-family houses, increasingly architects are investigating new models of residential architecture that respond to the ways we live in the 21st century. By serving residents of various socioeconomic statuses, cultures, and household types, diverse types of housing can ensure the vitality of a city.

"Housing that is adaptable for multigenerational households can attract African American, Asian American, and Latino families, who are more likely to live with extended family, for example, and rethinking how work spaces exist in a domestic setting can retain artists and other creatives who might otherwise be forced out of a city," says Steinmuller.

At CCA, architecture and interior design students investigate how innovative housing typologies can serve different types of residents. They begin by doing a deep dive into the needs and desires of a socially or economically marginalized community. Students research groups such as senior citizens, new immigrants, gig workers and others with precarious employment, or single-parent families to learn about the challenges they face in accessing fair housing. Only after coming to understand these communities do students begin to develop architectural designs that can improve social equity by being both more affordable and more responsive to contemporary needs.

One recent student project at CCA was a residence for a household comprising four unrelated senior citizens and the teenagers they each were fostering. The housing unit was designed to bring together residents both "vertically" - each family unit of one adult and one teen - and "horizontally"-connecting the adults together and the teens together.

By focusing on a collective domestic household and an alternative family unit, this project is a powerful model for rethinking how residential architectural design can improve social equity.

Shared spaces provide a path toward equitable architecture

How to provide quality affordable housing is a pressing issue, especially in California where the median home price is expected to rise to $834,400 in 2022. Micro-housing, in which architects fit all of the usual elements of the American single-family house into a smaller footprint, is one strategy. Building ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, in the yards of existing single-family homes is another approach. At CCA, Price says, they see greater opportunities and benefits in thinking beyond those models. "Instead of replicating the traditional house in a smaller form," he says, "we are thinking about alternatives to these conventions, especially the possibilities of sharing spaces."

Many traditional housing types, from pueblos in the American Southwest to Chinese courtyard houses, were designed around collective spaces. More recently, cohousing, developed in 1970s Denmark, drew on these models and others in an attempt to create cooperative communities through shared amenities and outdoor spaces. "Restructuring housing can restructure social interactions and create community," says Campos.

In this vein, CCA architecture students in a recent studio course began to think about the room types that could be distributed across multiple households in order to make housing more affordable. They borrowed ideas from the sharing economy and applied them to the design of housing. They wondered, "How often do we really use certain spaces?"

"The hypothesis we asked our students to test," says Steinmuller, "is whether designing dwellings with collective spaces can make housing more affordable as well as more fair."

Students investigated ways that sharing spaces could reduce the cost of the family dwelling. For instance, one project designed for a group of immigrant women who were launching food-truck businesses is organized around a large, communal commercial kitchen. These women could not each afford that kind of specialized space, which is designed not only to support their fledgling businesses but also to serve as a place for sociability. The students' hypothesis is that the shared kitchen, a place for the women to gather with their children while also making food for their businesses, can help build a community that is resilient both socially and economically.

Universal design is an element of equitable architecture

Another strategy for achieving social equity through interior and architectural design is to follow the principles of universal design. The philosophy behind universal design is that creating spaces and products that are inclusive and accessible to everyone results in design that is better for all users. Universal design is equitable, flexible, and intuitive and accommodates all types of bodies and abilities.

A compelling example of universal design is the project Stalled!, which addresses the need for safe, sustainable, and inclusive public restrooms. One proposal, by architect Joel Sanders, is to abolish binary, single-sex restrooms in favor of a multiuser model. While designed to provide equitable access to restrooms for gender nonconforming people, a multiuser restroom also meets the needs of a wider segment of the population. For example, a father would be able to take his young daughters to the restroom, or an adult daughter could accompany her elderly father who may need assistance.

"Universal design can also include furniture systems that transform to accommodate different needs and support diverse ways of moving through the world," says Campos.

Universal design is woven into the entire interior design curriculum at CCA, through workshops, lectures, projects, and courses. Students take a studio class focused on universal design in their senior year. A recent project for that course, a behavioral health clinic for children and youth ages 2 to 18, resulted in the design of custom, flexible furniture that could be used by everyone in that age range. It could accommodate the different sizes, abilities, and ways of being in space for both toddlers and teens: users could sit on the furniture, or climb on top of it, or crawl under it. "It can serve different needs at different times of day and for different users," says Campos.

Using architectural design to advance social justice

Today's architecture and interior design students are determined to put their education to use in the service of social justice causes. They are rethinking how the built environment, from the macro scale of regional planning to the micro scale of furniture design, can be shaped to have a positive impact on all of us, including historically marginalized communities.

"At CCA, we believe that designing the built environment is a critical cultural practice that can and should serve the common good," says Price. "Our students go on to use the skills they gain here to achieve environmental, social, and political goals."

Steinmuller agrees. "A degree in architecture or interior design is ideal preparation for taking action in the world."

We use cookies to gather information about our users. Our use of cookies is focused on improving our websites and enhancing your experience. For more information on how we use cookies, see our Privacy Policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How architectural design can improve social equity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today, thought leaders in the field are approaching architectural design with an eye not only to aesthetics and environmental sustainability, but also to social equity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How some banks still redline minority communities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Latest data from low-income, first-generation and BIPOC high school students reveal concerns about preparedness, ability to meet their basic needs and academic costs are impacting their future plans
MINNEAPOLIS , March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Less than half of students from traditionally underserved populations believe education after high school is necessary, according to a new survey conducted by ECMC Group in partnership with VICE Media Group. The survey of more than 1,000 high school students ages 14-18 from low-income, first-generation and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) backgrounds found that only 45% believe education after high school is necessary, compared to 52% of all high schoolers.

Question The Quo: National Study Finds Students from Underserved Populations Less Inclined to Seek Education after High School than Their Peers

In addition, only 8% feel fully prepared to make the decision of what to do after high school.

This study is the latest in a series of national surveys conducted since February 2020 to uncover insights from high schoolers about their academic and career plans after high school. The previous five surveys gathered information from a cross-section of more than 5,000 students from across the country. The latest survey, conducted in October 2022, focused specifically on gathering insights from historically underserved high school student populations. The data is part of ECMC Group's Question The Quo campaign, designed to empower Gen Z teens to take the education and career path that is right for them.

"This latest round of data provides a clearer picture of the issues and barriers faced by our most under-resourced students as they seek to determine their future trajectory," said Dan Fisher, president and CEO of ECMC Group. "With this information, we have an opportunity to not only hear the concerns but develop solutions that will enable these students to persist and thrive in the future."

The survey also found that 83% of students surveyed feel pressure-often self-directed-to pursue a four-year degree, but more than half (53%) are open to a path other than four-year college, and nearly 60% believe they can be successful without a four-year degree.

As they ponder their future, most would like their high school to provide guidance on questions about finances (62%), support for their mental and physical health (48%), identifying postsecondary education options (46%), and managing future debt (37%) or handling unexpected costs (37%).

"Students from underserved communities are looking at education through a practical lens," said Fisher. "They want to know what the cost is, how they're going to pay, how they will get through everyday life and whether there's a job at the end of the road."
Students from underserved populations feel unprepared to make decisions about their future
The study found that 86% of students surveyed think about their future path at least weekly (52% think about it every day) and 59% have a career path in mind, but few are receiving the guidance they need to make an informed decision.

Only about one-third of students surveyed have been offered a program that helps them explore careers; 38% have taken a class on career exploration, and only 41% of students attend high schools that provide college fairs.

When thinking about their future, more than half look to their family to provide information, 48% seek insight from teachers and counselors, and 36% turn to friends and classmates.
Students from underserved populations are focused on ensuring their ability to meet their basic needs
The survey found that underserved students put basic needs at the top of their decision-making criteria:

75% listed mental health in their top decision-making criteria for choosing a path after high school

When asked about their top three needs in making a decision about their post-high school education:

43% listed "I need to be able to feed myself"

34% listed "I need to have safe housing"

31% listed "I need to be able to take care of my physical health"

In addition, 48% wish their high school provided more guidance on managing their health (physical/mental).
Students from underserved populations are concerned about the cost of education after high school
The cost of education after high school is a key concern for these populations:

70% listed the cost of tuition in their top decision-making criteria for choosing a path after high school

56% worry about how they will pay for college

The most common areas where students lack the financial information they need include:

Scholarships available to them (43%)

Earning potential based on different career paths (38%)

Jobs they should consider to help manage costs while attending school (37%)

Average costs they will have to pay outside of tuition (33%)

In addition, 65% would choose a career they are passionate about over one that provides a high salary.
Even among underserved populations, there are differences in education and career outlook

Low-income students are least likely to consider four-year degrees

First-generation students are most likely to have started career exploration in high school

First-generation students are more worried about costs outside of tuition

BIPOC students have the lowest understanding of the income/cost tradeoff of pursuing a career over pursuing education immediately after high school

Low-income students feel more strongly about postsecondary education requiring less time to complete

First-generation students are most likely to believe the government has a role in funding education

First-generation students are most concerned about how they will pay for education

Additional findings include: Careers are top-of-mind for low-income, first-generation and BIPOC students

57% started exploring career options in high school

78% say it's important or very important to have career plans determined when they graduate from high school

Shorter, career-focused education pathways make sense for underserved students

55% said their post-high school education should last less than four years

39% said post-high school education should be two years or less

33% say post-high school education should only include subjects directly related to their program/major

58% say a skills-based education makes sense

32% say education would be better in several short experiences over a lifetime vs. one longer experience

Because of the pandemic, 34% feel more comfortable with following a path other than four-year college

Low-income, first-gen and BIPOC students believe the government and businesses have a role to play in their education

46% say the government should provide additional money to pay off student loans

40% say the government should subsidize/pay for education

40% say businesses should provide formal education

38% say businesses should provide additional money to pay off student loans

Survey Methodology
ECMC Group, in partnership with VICE Media Group, conducted a survey of 1,020 low-income, first-generation and BIPOC students ages 14-18 from October 11-25, 2022. This study is part of ECMC Group's Question The Quo Education Pulse research, which has included six nationally representative surveys from February 2020-October 2022, including the new findings. Read more about the national surveys and methodology here: https://questionthequo.org/about-us.
About ECMC Group
ECMC Group is a nonprofit corporation focused on helping students succeed by creating, providing and investing in innovative educational opportunities. Headquartered in Minneapolis, ECMC Group and its family of companies are focused on advancing educational opportunities through financial tools and services; nonprofit career education; and innovative, impactful and mission-aligned funding for programs to help students achieve their academic and professional goals. To learn more, visit www.ecmcgroup.org.

SOURCE ECMC Group

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
National Study Finds Students from Underserved Populations Less Inclined to Seek Education after High School than Their Peers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PRNewswire/ -- Less than half of students from traditionally underserved populations believe education after high school is necessary, according to a new...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Climate Change and the Health of Socially Vulnerable People | US EPA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate Change and the Health of Socially Vulnerable People

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in June 2021 paint s a grim picture: African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) - three of the most historically underserved populations in health care - were much more likely to contract COVID-19, require hospitalization, and succumb to the disease than white people.

AI/ANs were 1.6 times more likely to contract COVID than white people, 3.3 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.4 times more likely to die from the disease.

African Americans were 1.1 times more likely to contract COVID than white people, 2.9 times more likely to be hospitalized, and twice as likely to die from the disease.

Latinos were twice as likely to contract COVID than white people, 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.3 times more likely to die from the disease.

These numbers can't be ignored. The growing awareness of the problem among the public as well as by government policymakers, communities, and health care providers has added a sense of urgency to the dire and immediate need to close economic, racial, and cultural gaps in the provision of health care to underserved populations.

This guide highlights efforts underway to bring true health care equality to populations without access to the care they need by:

Underserved Populations in Health Care: What Are Health Inequities?

The first step in bringing equality to health care is to answer the question, what are health inequities?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health inequities as "systematic differences in the health status of different population groups."

Medical News Today adds that health inequities are "avoidable differences in health between different groups of people."

Health inequities lead to a negative impact on the living conditions, health care access, and overall health of underserved groups. However, everyone is hurt by unfairness in the provision of health care because it affects the economic, social, and political systems on which society depends. Conversely, everyone benefits when all members of our communities are healthy, which allows them to contribute their unique talents and reach their full potential.

These are among the populations chronically underserved in health care:

African Americans

While life expectancy increased substantially for African Americans in the 20th century, the CDC reports that the gap in life expectancy between African Americans and white people in the U.S. widened to six years in 2020, the largest difference since 1998. Life expectancy for both groups declined from 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

African Americans' life expectancy was 72 years in 2020, down from 74.7 years in 2019.

White people's life expectancy was 78 years in 2020, down from 78.8 years in 2019.

Latinx/Hispanics

A disproportionate number of Latinx/Hispanics are either below or between 100% and 199% of the federal poverty level (FPL), as the Commonwealth Fund reports.

Latinx/Hispanics below FPL: 17%

African Americans below FPL: 21%

White people below FPL: 9%

Latinx/Hispanics between 100% and 199% of FPL: 25%

African Americans between 100% and 199% of FPL: 22%

White people between 100% and 199% of FPL: 13%

In addition, the ongoing residential segregation of African Americans and Latinx/Hispanics limits access to health care services, increases their exposure to harmful pollutants, and exacerbates chronic health conditions, such as obesity and hypertension.

American Indians and Alaska Natives

The Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that 6.9 million individuals in the U.S., or about 2% of the population, identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. While the rates of cardiovascular disease declined overall for people ages 25 to 64 between 2000 and 2015, mortality rates from cardiovascular disease increased substantially for AI/AN people in that age group: 2.1% for women and 1.3% for men.

The increase was correlated with higher rates of diabetes, obesity, and smoking, all of which are higher among the adult AI/AN population. A lack of health care resources for this underserved group is thwarting greater public health education and monitoring.

Unhoused Population

The health risks to unhoused people in the U.S. constitute a full-blown health crisis:

The average life expectancy of an unhoused person is just 50 years, according to statistics compiled by Policy Advice.

A total of 20% of the unhoused population are children.

Almost 4 in 10 sheltered unhoused people (38.6%) have a disability.

One-fourth of unhoused people suffer from mental illness, 38% from alcohol abuse, and 26% from drug abuse.

New Mothers and Women with Children

The rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. is twice that of the U.K.; HealthAffairs calls this a "national disgrace." African American women are more likely to have cardiovascular conditions and other preconception health risks that increase the likelihood of many pregnancy complications: hemorrhage, infection, hypertensive disease, and premature delivery.

In addition, infants born to women who are African American, AI/AN, or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) have higher mortality rates than infants born to white women. Women in these and other ethnic and racial groups are less likely to receive vital reproductive health services, such as Pap tests, mammograms, and contraceptives. They also face obstacles in receiving preventive care and mental health care.

People with Disabilities

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that approximately 40.7 million people in the U.S., or 12.7% of the population, have a disability. The Catholic Health Association highlights three areas where people with disabilities are more likely to experience preventable health disparities:

Refugees

The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that at the end of 2020, 82.4 million people in the world had been forcibly displaced, including 32 million children, or 42% of the total. A WHO report in June 2021 identifies the serious obstacles that refugees and migrants face in receiving necessary health care.

They lack the required legal status.

Their needs are perceived as secondary to those of native populations.

They've lost contact with family and social support systems.

They face communication, social, religious, and cultural barriers.

People with Limited English Proficiency

Limited English proficiency (LEP) has long been a primary impediment to health care for immigrant and ethnic populations. Language Magazine points out that language barriers between patients and health care providers worsened the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. The magazine cites research that found LEP was "significantly associated" with COVID-19 outcomes.

Public service announcements regarding the use of masks and social distancing weren't available in many non-English languages.

Much of the information that was available in Spanish was outdated or was poorly translated by online translation services, such as Google Translate.

Young Adults Who Lack Health Insurance

The number of uninsured nonelderly people in the U.S. increased from 10% in 2016 to 10.9% in 2019, representing 28.9 million individuals. The increase was greatest for NHOPI (3.4%), Hispanics (1%), and Asian Americans (0.4%).

The top reason young adults gave for being uninsured was the lack of affordable coverage (73.7%).

Other reasons were not being eligible for coverage (25.3%), not needing or wanting coverage (21.3%), and signing up for coverage was too difficult (18.4%)

People Who Are Eligible for Medicaid and Aren't Enrolled in the Program

Recent expansion of Medicaid in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to millions of U.S. residents gaining health insurance coverage, yet in the 12 states that haven't adopted expanded coverage, participation has stagnated despite millions more people qualifying for the program due to lost jobs and reduced incomes.

Because former President Barack Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), anticipated that low-income people would receive health care under Medicaid, the program isn't able to fill the gap created by limits imposed by some states.

In the 12 states that haven't adopted Medicaid expansion, 4,340,000 people would be eligible under expansion, yet only 356,000 currently qualify for coverage.

Many of these states have large populations of African American and other racial and ethnic minorities disproportionately affected by the lack of access to health insurance.

Resources for Identifying Health Inequities

Minority Health Care Disparities

Many of the diseases that are most prevalent among minority populations are preventable, raising hope among health care professionals that they can be rectified through better public health education and preventive care. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), has implemented the Minority Health and Health Disparities Strategic Plan 2021-2025 as part of the department's efforts to chip away at minority health care disparities.

One goal of the NIH plan is to speed up the application of insights gained from clinical research into minority health care disparities to clinical practice and public health education. Among the factors being investigated are behavioral, biological, sociocultural, socio-ecological, and environmental characteristics that impact minority health disparities.

How Health Inequities Impact Minority Populations

Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among essential workers and industries, placing them at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, as the CDC reports. However, many other social, political, and economic factors contribute to the disparities in the provision of health services to minority groups.

Discrimination

Poor health care access and use

Gaps in education, income, and wealth

More crowded living conditions

Addressing the disparities focuses on improving access to primary care providers for children and adults in minority groups, promoting health literacy, and increasing funding to publicly funded health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

African Americans

The CDC notes that African Americans ages 18 to 49 are twice as likely to die from heart disease than white Americans, and African Americans ages 35 to 64 are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure than their white counterparts.

Health coverage among African Americans has been boosted by the ACA, as The Commonwealth Fund reports. The percentage of uninsured African American adults declined from 24.4% in 2013 to 13.7% in 2016 before increasing to 14.2% in 2019.

Chronic health conditions that have a greater impact on young African Americans than white people include high blood pressure (33% for ages 35 to 49 vs. 22% for white people), diabetes (10% vs. 8%), and stroke (7% vs. 4% for ages 50 to 64).

Mental health issues are more prevalent among African Americans who live at or below the FPL, twice as many of whom report experiencing serious psychological distress than African Americans who live at twice the FPL or higher.

Leading causes of death among African Americans are heart disease, cancer, and accidents.

Latinx/Hispanics

The HHS states that only 50.1% of Latinx/Hispanics in the U.S. have private health insurance, the lowest rate of any ethnic or racial group. By comparison, 74.7% of non-Hispanic white people have private health insurance.

Health coverage for Latinx/Hispanics increased as a result of the ACA, which saw the percentage of uninsured Latinos decrease from 40.2% in 2013 to 24.9% in 2018 before increasing to 25.7% in 2019, according to The Commonwealth Fund.

Chronic health conditions among Latinx/Hispanics include higher rates of obesity than non-Hispanic white people, more instances of low birth weight infants, and more prevalence of diabetes. Puerto Ricans have higher rates of asthma, HIV/AIDS, and infant mortality.

Mental health issues that Latinx/Hispanics are susceptible to include mental distress related to immigration and acculturation, as Mental Health America reports. Rates of serious mental illness and major depressive episodes are increasing for Latinos ages 18 to 49.

Leading causes of death for Latinos are heart disease, cancer, and accidents.

Asian Americans

While Asian Americans are less likely to live in poverty than the overall population (12.1% vs. 15.1%), certain subgroups have much higher poverty rates, including Hmong Americans (28.3%), Bhutanese Americans (33.3%), and Burmese Americans (35%).

Health coverage among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) increased as a result of the ACA, according to figures compiled by the HHS. In 2013, 14.7% of the AAPI population was uninsured, but the number had decreased to 6.8% by 2019.

Chronic health conditions that show a higher prevalence among Asian Americans than the general population include tuberculosis (16.7 incidence rate vs. 0.5 for white people), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hepatitis B, HIV/AIDS, smoking, and liver disease.

Mental health issues are often untreated among Asian Americans because of the stigma attached to mental illness. Mental Health America estimates that 17.3% of Asian Americans will be diagnosed with a psychiatric condition at some point in their lives, yet Asian Americans are three times less likely to seek mental health treatment than other population groups in the U.S.

Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the median household income for NHOPIs in the U.S. was $66,695 in 2019, compared with $71,664 for white people. The number of NHOPIs living at or below the FPL was 14.8% in 2019, compared with 9% for white people.

Health coverage rates for this population group are less than that for white people: 65.8% had private health insurance in 2019, compared with 74.7% of white people. The HHS notes that 12.3% of NHOPIs were uninsured in 2019.

Chronic health conditions among NHOPIs are exacerbated by the group's higher rates of smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity than those of the general population. The TB rate for this group is 37 times higher than that for white people; hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS are also more common among NHOPIs.

Mental health issues are less common among NHOPIs than in white people, including serious psychological distress in adults (10.1% vs. 12.7%) and major depressive episodes (3.5% vs. 8.5%). However, the HHS reports that suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts increased sharply for Asian American and NHOPI young adults and adults ages 26 to 49 between 2009 and 2019.

Leading causes of death for NHOPIs are cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

American Indians and Alaska Natives

Cultural barriers, geographic isolation, and low incomes negatively affect the quality of health care available to AI/ANs. While 22% of AI/ANs live on reservations or other trust lands, 60% live in metropolitan areas - the lowest metropolitan percentage of any racial group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median annual household income for AI/ANs was $49,906 in 2019, compared with $71,664 for white people.

AI/ANs have higher rates of mental illness and suicide than other population groups. They're also more likely to be obese, experience substance abuse, and be victims of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In addition to having higher rates of diabetes, liver disease, and teenage pregnancy, AI/ANs are nearly seven times more likely to contract TB than white people.

Health coverage among AI/ANs increased following the passage of the ACA. In 2013, 26.9% of the AI/AN population was uninsured, decreasing to 19.1% in 2019. The HHS estimates that 51.9% of AI/ANs had private health insurance in 2019, while 42.1% relied on Medicaid or public health insurance.

Chronic health conditions that are more prevalent among AI/ANs than in the general population include unintentional injuries; diabetes; obesity; SIDS; liver disease; hepatitis; and TB, which is seven times more common among AI/ANs than among white people.

Mental health issues, including suicide and substance abuse, afflict AI/ANs at a greater level than other population groups. In 2019, suicide was the second leading cause of death among AI/ANs ages 10 to 34. The death rate from suicide among all AI/ANs is 20% higher than that of white people.

Resources on Minority Health Care Disparities

Barriers to Health Care Access

The challenges the health care industry faced in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the most daunting impediments to the provision of health care to underserved populations.. The 2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), an HHS agency, predates the pandemic response but confirms that Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities receive worse health care than white people in approximately 40% of the quality measures.

These are among the most common barriers to health care access:

Lack of Health Insurance

The HHS found that uninsured adults across racial and ethnic groups are at least twice as likely as their white counterparts to avoid seeing a doctor. Patients who establish a strong personal connection with their health care provider are more likely to take better care of themselves. They're also more likely to trust the health care profession.

One in 10 adults report that they delayed or went without getting health care due to its high cost.

The rate was 15% for Latinx and 13% for African Americans.

Adults who most need medical care are twice as likely to delay or go without it than those who need care less.

Among uninsured adults, 36.5% delay or go without medical care due to its high cost.

Lack of Financial Resources

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an HHS agency, estimates that national health care expenditures grew by 4.6% in 2019 to $3.9 trillion, which represents 17% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). The agency forecasts that by 2028, national health care expenditures will reach $6.2 trillion, representing 20% of GDP. These figures are much higher than the amount spent on health care by other developed countries.

The Children's Health Fund estimates that 20.3 million children in the U.S. (28% of all children) are unable to access the health care resources they need, due primarily to the high cost of care.

Financial barriers include high copays, high deductibles, and unaffordable prescription drug prices.

More than 13.1 million children are in families who are unable to pay their medical bills or are struggling to pay medical bills.

Lack of a Regular Health Care Source

Even when underserved populations are insured or are able to pay for their health care needs, they may be challenged to find a convenient provider. The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), an HHS agency, identifies 7,359 health professional shortage areas in the U.S. where 85 million people reside. The HRSA estimates that 15,445 primary care professionals are needed to address these shortages.

Research published in the CDC's National Health Statistics Reports found that adults in the U.S. who lived outside a metropolitan statistical area had less access to health care and used health care services less often.

More than half of all health professional shortage areas for primary care, dental care, and mental health care are in rural areas, yet the number of hospitals in these areas continues to decline.

Legal Barriers Faced by Immigrants

The political and social response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates clearly that a person's immigration status serves as a social determinant of health. Several immigration-related factors influence a person's health:

Living environments, working conditions, and environmental factors also affect the ability of immigrants to access health care services. Legal barriers may be predicated on the person's country of origin, race or ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, and immigration status.

Also complicating health care for immigrants are the various state laws relating to who qualifies for health insurance coverage and inconsistent federal policies related to immigration. As of 2018, 23% of authorized immigrants and 45% of unauthorized immigrants lacked health insurance.

Lack of Transport, Long Waits for Appointments, and Other Structural Barriers

The American Hospital Association reports that each year, 3.6 million people in the U.S. are prevented from receiving the health care they need because they don't have access to a vehicle, they're too far away from their health care provider, or they face some other transportation obstacle. Physicians Practice notes that missing medical appointments due to transportation issues or other infrastructure-related matters has a cascading effect:

Patients who repeatedly miss medical appointments undergo fewer cancer screenings, have worse chronic disease control, and are more likely to require acute care and emergency services. In addition to compromising patient outcomes, the inability to make scheduled appointments increases the overall cost of medical care.

Lack of Health Care Providers in Urban and Rural Areas

The HRSA's directory of health professional shortage areas includes both urban and rural areas of the U.S., yet the reasons for the shortage of health care providers in cities and lightly populated regions are similar. The National Rural Health Association highlights the unique challenges that health care providers in rural areas face:

A high patient-to-primary care physician ratio

A greater proportion of poor people

Few transportation options

Lack of high-speed internet access

However, residents in rural areas face unique challenges in accessing the health care services they need. For example, rural settings have a higher rate of fatal and injury-causing automobile crashes than urban areas, and fewer mental health services are available in rural settings despite the high rate of suicide among rural youth.

Language Barriers

Twenty-five million people in the U.S. are estimated to have limited English proficiency (LEP) that compromises the quality of the health care they receive. The American Medical Association estimates that Hispanics with LEP have worse health care access, are less healthy, and receive fewer preventive services than English-speaking Hispanics.

While state and federal regulations require that health care providers offer patients with LEP trained interpreters during their care, a shortage of available interpreters and the shortcomings of audio and video equipment present barriers to communication for LEP patients.

Age

Older people are more likely to require access to health care services, yet they're also more likely than younger adults to lack funds, have impaired mobility, and have less access to technology. Recommendations submitted as part of the National Academy of Medicine's initiative to set health care priorities include six approaches to improving health care access for older people.

Bolster the health care workforce through scholarships, loan forgiveness, clinical internships, and professional training.

Invest in public health efforts to address the health care needs of older people.

Fund efforts to eliminate social, structural, and economic barriers to health care access by people age 65 and over.

Provide more telehealth services for older people and improve the quality of remote interactions.

Offer more palliative and end-of-life care for treating serious illnesses and dementia.

Develop new approaches to long-term care and support services for chronic illnesses.

Resources on Barriers to Health Care Access

How to Overcome Health Disparities: 5 Approaches

Government agencies, community groups, and health care providers are responding with a range of efforts intended to close the gaps in health care for underserved populations. Programs that the federal government, technology companies, and community groups have initiated are leading the way.

1. Federal Government Initiatives

Work that the HHS and other federal agencies are doing to improve the provision of health care to underserved groups focuses on three areas:

U.S. National Institutes of Health UNITE Initiative

The goal of the NIH UNITE program is to identify and eliminate structural racism within NIH-supported organizations and throughout the scientific community by:

The five committees that make up the UNITE initiative focus on stakeholder experiences; health equity, minority health, and health disparities; creating a culture of inclusion; transparency and accountability to all stakeholders; and promoting workforce diversity throughout the research community.

Executive Orders

In the absence of congressional consensus on legislation addressing the critical problem of underserved populations in health care, federal executive orders can be a way to bring more equity and fairness to the provision of health care in the U.S. Two such executive orders that President Joe Biden issued in 2021 address existing federal health care programs and target equitability in the nation's response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

US Department of Health & Human Services Healthy People 2030 Initiative

The HHS Healthy People 2030 program builds on the department's Healthy People 2020 initiative by focusing on the most pressing health care issues:

Helping all people live healthy, thriving lives

Eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity

Establishing social, physical, and economic environments that promote health and well-being for all

Promoting health development and healthy behaviors in all life stages

Engaging health care leaders and public officials in implementing policies and taking actions that improve everyone's health and well-being

2. Artificial Intelligence to Overcome the Shortage of Health Care Professionals

Current models of health care provision are unsustainable because demand for health services will soon overwhelm the capacity of health care professionals and providers. McKinsey reports that even if the health care industry created 40 million new jobs by 2030, it would still be 9.9 million jobs short of needed physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to fill the gap by improving patient outcomes effectively and affordably in conjunction with human health care providers in these areas:

Chronic care management

Self-care, prevention, and wellness

Triage and diagnosis

Diagnostics

Clinical decision support

Care delivery

The first generation of AI in health care will automate repetitive, routine tasks, including much administration. The second generation will shift from hospital-based care to home-based care, including remote monitoring, alert systems, and virtual assistants. The third generation will be in clinical practice, including clinical decision support.

3. Smart Devices to Democratize Access to Basic Health Care

The health care industry is catching up with the personal digital revolution that's seen smartphones and other intelligent devices become ubiquitous. Portables, wearables, and other consumer-facing technologies generate a vast amount of health-related data that can be gathered, analyzed, and applied to personalize health care, thus making health information more readily available.

Do-it-yourself health care makes patients true partners with health care providers in maintaining health and diagnosing and treating medical problems.

Digital devices can serve as electrocardiogram (EKG) monitors, blood glucose monitors, and pulse oximeters.

They've been designed to measure carbon monoxide in exhaled breath to support smoking cessation programs.

They create a new "data pipeline" that links health data that patients report in real time to a dashboard that providers who are able to prescribe therapies or interventions that are delivered back to the patients can access.

4. More Sophisticated and Less Expensive Telehealth Services

The use of telehealth services expanded rapidly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the widespread use of the technology also highlighted shortcomings in the current versions of the services. HealthAffairs refers to the current state of telehealth technology as a "punctuated equilibrium," borrowing a phrase from the late scientist and educator Stephen Jay Gould.

While telehealth services enhance the availability and convenience of health care provision, they must go beyond cost savings to improve patient outcomes and the quality of care patients receive.

Telehealth services can lead to an increase in patient "visits" because patients may not have sought help if the telehealth services weren't available. This can actually increase costs for health care providers.

Little effort has been made to address disparities in access to the technologies that telehealth services require, including broadband internet access, digital devices, translation services, and defined best practices for cultural and social competency.

Some health issues can't be addressed adequately via telehealth services, potentially increasing the workload for caregivers who have to follow up a telehealth session with an in-person visit.

At present, few mechanisms are in place to measure the quality and effectiveness of telehealth visits or to understand how the technology affects patients' experience. Regulatory and policy approaches are required that address the unique attributes of telehealth visits.

5. Increased Cancer Screening and Other Diagnostic and Preventive Care for Underserved Communities

Cancer is more prevalent in underserved populations due to social, environmental, and economic disadvantages of poor people and racial and ethnic minorities. The National Cancer Institute notes that African Americans have higher death rates for many types of cancer, including breast cancer and prostate cancer.

The CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program has been successful in delivering cancer screening to women living on an isolated Navajo reservation. In addition, between October 2019 and February 2020 the program provided mammograms and other breast cancer screening to women in Arkansas who lived in 23 different shelters, facilities for battered women, rehabilitation centers, and prison release homes. It also worked with the New York State Department of Health to offer cancer screening tests; in one year, the program treated more than 26,000 people who lacked insurance or a regular doctor.

Building on the Link Between Health Care and Prosperity

Overcoming the challenges facing the health care industry in meeting the needs of underserved populations will require a concerted effort by government, communities, health care professionals, and patients themselves. Nurses and nurse leaders play a vital role in addressing the social, economic, and cultural costs of health disparities. All individuals and communities benefit when everyone has ready access to the health care resources they need to enjoy a long, healthy, productive life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Underserved Populations in Healthcare | Hawaiʻi Pacific University Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Addressing the needs of underserved populations in health care requires a concerted effort by government, communities, and health care professionals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Environmental Justice: A New Model for Planning in Underserved Communities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Equitable development is an approach for meeting the needs of underserved communities through policies and programs that reduce disparities while fostering places that are healthy and vibrant. It is increasingly considered an effective placed-based action for creating strong and livable communities.

Today, there are clear initiatives, tangible examples, and award-winning projects that demonstrate the approach as a means for rebuilding America's communities. The outcomes of equitable development are the result of clearly set expectations, collaborative problem solving, and persistent leadership.

It is a fair question to ask "how does equitable development differ from other place-based approaches?"

Equitable development is driven by priorities and values as well as clear expectations that the outcomes from development need to be responsive to underserved populations and vulnerable groups, in addition to using innovative design strategies and sustainable policies. Acknowledging and understanding both is necessary for sustaining environmental justice.

Lower-income citizens and people of color are successfully guiding the changes that occur within their communities rather than reacting to them. This unique narrative is often missing from prevailing planning, design, and place-based discussions. EPA sees value in elevating this narrative because it draws attention to solutions from environmental justice actions.

Environmental Justice as a Planning Issue

As a public policy issue, environmental justice is often framed and presented in the context of the law, public health, waste management, and public involvement. However, other factors contributing to the hardships experienced by communities with environmental justice concerns include failures in planning or enforcing proper zoning, or the incompatibility of land uses.

This relationship was understood by delegates who attended the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991. An outcome of the Summit was the adoption of seventeen Principles of Environmental Justice. Approximately one-third of these principles are relevant to planning, urban policy, and management of the built environment. The prevalence of this theme within the Principles of Environmental Justice suggests:

Environmental justice strives to address environmental challenges in an upstream manner by being proactive;

Environmental justice has a long history of targeting untenable practices in housing, land use, transportation, industrial siting, health care, and sanitation; and

Environmental justice is a cross-cutting issue as evidenced by the fact that the disparate impacts of redlining, infrastructure decline, deteriorating housing, lead poisoning, industrial pollution, concentrated poverty and unemployment are related problems.

Problems that are interrelated require comprehensive solutions, and the solutions need to be accessible for persons who experience the disproportionate burden.

The concept of environmental justice is not foreign to planners. Until recently, the challenge has been:

Framing how to implement it during the planning process.

Visualizing the product from that process.

Correcting the misperception that addressing environmental justice may slow down the planning process.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of researchers and advocates, the creative thinking of planners and architects, and the compelling results of determined community builders, these barriers are coming down. Communities are finding ways to better align environmental justice and planning as complementary quality of life goals.

One method of alignment is through equitable development. Equitable development is simply a place-based approach for encouraging environmental justice. In the context of environmental justice and planning, equitable development improves public involvement; supports collaborative problem solving; and makes a visible difference in communities that are underserved, under-resourced, and overburdened.

Gentrification

Gentrification commonly refers to 'the process of neighborhood change that occurs as places of lower real estate value are transformed into places of higher real estate value.' In recent years, gentrification has become an increasingly common occurrence because of the growing popularity of urban centers and existing communities. Gentrification is a nuanced process whose outcomes may be viewed as:

positive based on improvements to physical and economic infrastructure;

negative when cultural assets and cherished institutions are compromised; or

both positive and negative when important services (retail, housing, transportation, and the like) are provided, but are unaffordable by long-standing residents.

Some scholars argue gentrification is good because it contributes to job growth, a larger tax base, higher property values, and opportunities to expand services or offer new ones. On the other hand, failing to acknowledge the differential health burdens experienced by low and moderate income populations when communities transition, is not socially responsible nor sustainable.

In the context of environmental justice, national leaders offered an insightful and cogent position on the subject when the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) issued the report Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization, and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of Hope in December 1996. This scholarship is important because environmental justice proponents were sensitive to the fact that reinvestment activities had the potential to either alleviate vulnerabilities or amplify vulnerabilities that were experienced by persons living in communities that are underserved and over-burdened. Also, the report is a reminder of the necessity to properly analyze the environmental effects, including human health, economic and social effects, of Federal actions as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

Gentrification is an environmental issue, and the principle of fairness suggests the burden of policies that are necessary for society - like protecting the environment - should not be borne by a small minority who happen to be victimized by their side effects. Concerns about gentrification should not be interpreted as unwillingness to embrace change or new development. Public push back often reflects frustration with past failures of the public involvement process, concern that cherished institutions may be lost, or fear of involuntary displacement.

The progressive path forward on gentrification requires expansive concepts for encouraging sustainable communities, like equitable development, not restrictive approaches. City officials, developers, policy makers, advocates, business owners and residents should expand their knowledge base, devise strategies, and form alliances that are deliberate in actively managing gentrification as well as the differential burdens that may beset populations and institutions that are less resilient to shifts in the market.

Equitable Development Workshop

The Equitable Development Workshop has been a feature of the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference since 2010. Through the workshop, EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and the Office of Sustainable Communities (now the Office of Community Revitalization) partner to deliver an interesting and informative program. 'Environmental justice' and 'smart growth' are connected issues. Both share the position that the environment is defined as "where we live, where we work, and where we play.' Each year, the workshop objective is to bring an increasing number of people from environmental justice and smart growth communities together to learn from one another.

Can't make it to the workshop? Follow along on Twitter.

Equitable Development in Practice

ReGenesis Project - Spartanburg, SC

The ReGenesis Project easily reveals the connections between land use, environmental justice, and sustainability. In the late 1990s, Harold Mitchell, Jr. linked health concerns in the Arkwright and Forest Park neighborhoods within Spartanburg to the pollution in both communities. He formed an organization called ReGenesis to represent neighborhood interests in cleaning up contaminated and abandoned property as well as revitalizing the surrounding community. This project is a model for collaborative problem solving that shows how citizens can achieve extraordinary outcomes such as cleaning up two Superfund sites; managing vacant properties and brownfields; and conducting community design charettes. Since inception, ReGenesis has leveraged a $20K EPA grant into $270 million dollars in community reinvestment for a 500 acre site. Residents in Arkwright and Forest Park are demonstrating how past environmental injustices, caused by limited zoning restrictions and land use controls, can be corrected through community planning strategies.

Fruitvale Transit Village - Oakland, CA

The Fruitvale Transit Village reveals the key to creating truly sustainable communities is to be pliable. In 1990, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) had the option of advancing a construction proposal which lacked community support or working with residents of the Fruitvale District to devise a plan for the area. The Fruitvale community, with the support of the Unity Council, rejected BART's proposal for a multi-level parking garage as being poorly conceived and designed. Residents in the community didn't have objections to new construction. Instead, they wanted BART to plan with them rather than for them. Eventually, the transit authority decided it would be better to invest in public involvement and frame a vision that would be informed by the local knowledge of residents who would be impacted by the project. The outcome is a transit-oriented development that helps to connect the community rather than act as a buffer between neighborhood assets. Fruitvale Transit Village is a clear reminder that penetrating new audiences and leveraging untapped talent will be critical to the success of place-based initiatives.

Westside Specific Plan - National City, CA

The Westside Specific Plan is the outcome of collaboration among community, environmental and local government interests to create a successful neighborhood planning process. In December 2013, National City, California, raised the bar for neighborhood planning by completing the cleanup of a site to make way for 201 affordable housing units that will meet several community requests: the need for affordable living, access to public transit and access to open green space. The plan builds on an amortization ordinance passed by National City in 2006, and the regulation helps to phase-out non-compatible land uses. Residents of National City and their partners, including the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), worked tirelessly together for ten years to ensure city plans accurately reflected community needs. Also, EHC produced a video learning tool to share key lessons of community planning and community member involvement more broadly. Today, partners are celebrating Westside National City for its commitment to healthy neighborhoods.

Other Resources

Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development (2013). Discusses land use and community design strategies that community-based organizations, local and regional decision-makers, developers, and other stakeholders can use to build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods.

Unintended Impacts of Redevelopment and Revitalization Efforts in Five Environmental Justice Communities (2006). Contains recommendations on avoiding the displacement that can follow successful brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.

Breakthrough Communities: Celebrating the Victories of Environmental Justice and Planning (2015). Celebration of the individuals involved in environmental justice work across the country and how their transformative actions are helping over-burdened and under-resourced communities become more healthy, viable and sustainable.

Environmental Justice: A New Model for Planning in Underserved Communities (2014). The webinar explores how environmental justice is a forward-thinking, sustainable approach, and experts share why a discussion about environmental justice is important given the renewed focus on social equity and planning among professionals.

Nature Brought us Together(2012). Bayview Citizens for Social Justice was the recipient of an EPA Environmental Justice Small Grant in 1997. The video summarizes how the residents of Bayview developed a plan to chart a course forward, for both the people and the landscape.

Addressing Environmental Justice in Brownfield Communities (2009). Brochure discussing the work of EPA's Brownfields Program to promote environmental justice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equitable Development and Environmental Justice | US EPA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page talks about environmental justice as a place-based, urban planning, and development issue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Equitable development is an approach for meeting the needs of underserved communities through policies and programs that reduce disparities while fostering places that are healthy and vibrant. It is increasingly considered an effective placed-based action for creating strong and livable communities.

Today, there are clear initiatives, tangible examples, and award-winning projects that demonstrate the approach as a means for rebuilding America's communities. The outcomes of equitable development are the result of clearly set expectations, collaborative problem solving, and persistent leadership.

It is a fair question to ask "how does equitable development differ from other place-based approaches?"

Equitable development is driven by priorities and values as well as clear expectations that the outcomes from development need to be responsive to underserved populations and vulnerable groups, in addition to using innovative design strategies and sustainable policies. Acknowledging and understanding both is necessary for sustaining environmental justice.

Lower-income citizens and people of color are successfully guiding the changes that occur within their communities rather than reacting to them. This unique narrative is often missing from prevailing planning, design, and place-based discussions. EPA sees value in elevating this narrative because it draws attention to solutions from environmental justice actions.

Environmental Justice as a Planning Issue

As a public policy issue, environmental justice is often framed and presented in the context of the law, public health, waste management, and public involvement. However, other factors contributing to the hardships experienced by communities with environmental justice concerns include failures in planning or enforcing proper zoning, or the incompatibility of land uses.

This relationship was understood by delegates who attended the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991. An outcome of the Summit was the adoption of seventeen Principles of Environmental Justice. Approximately one-third of these principles are relevant to planning, urban policy, and management of the built environment. The prevalence of this theme within the Principles of Environmental Justice suggests:

Environmental justice strives to address environmental challenges in an upstream manner by being proactive;

Environmental justice has a long history of targeting untenable practices in housing, land use, transportation, industrial siting, health care, and sanitation; and

Environmental justice is a cross-cutting issue as evidenced by the fact that the disparate impacts of redlining, infrastructure decline, deteriorating housing, lead poisoning, industrial pollution, concentrated poverty and unemployment are related problems.

Problems that are interrelated require comprehensive solutions, and the solutions need to be accessible for persons who experience the disproportionate burden.

The concept of environmental justice is not foreign to planners. Until recently, the challenge has been:

Framing how to implement it during the planning process.

Visualizing the product from that process.

Correcting the misperception that addressing environmental justice may slow down the planning process.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of researchers and advocates, the creative thinking of planners and architects, and the compelling results of determined community builders, these barriers are coming down. Communities are finding ways to better align environmental justice and planning as complementary quality of life goals.

One method of alignment is through equitable development. Equitable development is simply a place-based approach for encouraging environmental justice. In the context of environmental justice and planning, equitable development improves public involvement; supports collaborative problem solving; and makes a visible difference in communities that are underserved, under-resourced, and overburdened.

Gentrification

Gentrification commonly refers to 'the process of neighborhood change that occurs as places of lower real estate value are transformed into places of higher real estate value.' In recent years, gentrification has become an increasingly common occurrence because of the growing popularity of urban centers and existing communities. Gentrification is a nuanced process whose outcomes may be viewed as:

positive based on improvements to physical and economic infrastructure;

negative when cultural assets and cherished institutions are compromised; or

both positive and negative when important services (retail, housing, transportation, and the like) are provided, but are unaffordable by long-standing residents.

Some scholars argue gentrification is good because it contributes to job growth, a larger tax base, higher property values, and opportunities to expand services or offer new ones. On the other hand, failing to acknowledge the differential health burdens experienced by low and moderate income populations when communities transition, is not socially responsible nor sustainable.

In the context of environmental justice, national leaders offered an insightful and cogent position on the subject when the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) issued the report Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization, and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of Hope in December 1996. This scholarship is important because environmental justice proponents were sensitive to the fact that reinvestment activities had the potential to either alleviate vulnerabilities or amplify vulnerabilities that were experienced by persons living in communities that are underserved and over-burdened. Also, the report is a reminder of the necessity to properly analyze the environmental effects, including human health, economic and social effects, of Federal actions as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

Gentrification is an environmental issue, and the principle of fairness suggests the burden of policies that are necessary for society - like protecting the environment - should not be borne by a small minority who happen to be victimized by their side effects. Concerns about gentrification should not be interpreted as unwillingness to embrace change or new development. Public push back often reflects frustration with past failures of the public involvement process, concern that cherished institutions may be lost, or fear of involuntary displacement.

The progressive path forward on gentrification requires expansive concepts for encouraging sustainable communities, like equitable development, not restrictive approaches. City officials, developers, policy makers, advocates, business owners and residents should expand their knowledge base, devise strategies, and form alliances that are deliberate in actively managing gentrification as well as the differential burdens that may beset populations and institutions that are less resilient to shifts in the market.

Equitable Development Workshop

The Equitable Development Workshop has been a feature of the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference since 2010. Through the workshop, EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and the Office of Sustainable Communities (now the Office of Community Revitalization) partner to deliver an interesting and informative program. 'Environmental justice' and 'smart growth' are connected issues. Both share the position that the environment is defined as "where we live, where we work, and where we play.' Each year, the workshop objective is to bring an increasing number of people from environmental justice and smart growth communities together to learn from one another.

Can't make it to the workshop? Follow along on Twitter.

Equitable Development in Practice

ReGenesis Project - Spartanburg, SC

The ReGenesis Project easily reveals the connections between land use, environmental justice, and sustainability. In the late 1990s, Harold Mitchell, Jr. linked health concerns in the Arkwright and Forest Park neighborhoods within Spartanburg to the pollution in both communities. He formed an organization called ReGenesis to represent neighborhood interests in cleaning up contaminated and abandoned property as well as revitalizing the surrounding community. This project is a model for collaborative problem solving that shows how citizens can achieve extraordinary outcomes such as cleaning up two Superfund sites; managing vacant properties and brownfields; and conducting community design charettes. Since inception, ReGenesis has leveraged a $20K EPA grant into $270 million dollars in community reinvestment for a 500 acre site. Residents in Arkwright and Forest Park are demonstrating how past environmental injustices, caused by limited zoning restrictions and land use controls, can be corrected through community planning strategies.

Fruitvale Transit Village - Oakland, CA

The Fruitvale Transit Village reveals the key to creating truly sustainable communities is to be pliable. In 1990, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) had the option of advancing a construction proposal which lacked community support or working with residents of the Fruitvale District to devise a plan for the area. The Fruitvale community, with the support of the Unity Council, rejected BART's proposal for a multi-level parking garage as being poorly conceived and designed. Residents in the community didn't have objections to new construction. Instead, they wanted BART to plan with them rather than for them. Eventually, the transit authority decided it would be better to invest in public involvement and frame a vision that would be informed by the local knowledge of residents who would be impacted by the project. The outcome is a transit-oriented development that helps to connect the community rather than act as a buffer between neighborhood assets. Fruitvale Transit Village is a clear reminder that penetrating new audiences and leveraging untapped talent will be critical to the success of place-based initiatives.

Westside Specific Plan - National City, CA

The Westside Specific Plan is the outcome of collaboration among community, environmental and local government interests to create a successful neighborhood planning process. In December 2013, National City, California, raised the bar for neighborhood planning by completing the cleanup of a site to make way for 201 affordable housing units that will meet several community requests: the need for affordable living, access to public transit and access to open green space. The plan builds on an amortization ordinance passed by National City in 2006, and the regulation helps to phase-out non-compatible land uses. Residents of National City and their partners, including the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), worked tirelessly together for ten years to ensure city plans accurately reflected community needs. Also, EHC produced a video learning tool to share key lessons of community planning and community member involvement more broadly. Today, partners are celebrating Westside National City for its commitment to healthy neighborhoods.

Other Resources

Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development (2013). Discusses land use and community design strategies that community-based organizations, local and regional decision-makers, developers, and other stakeholders can use to build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods.

Unintended Impacts of Redevelopment and Revitalization Efforts in Five Environmental Justice Communities (2006). Contains recommendations on avoiding the displacement that can follow successful brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.

Breakthrough Communities: Celebrating the Victories of Environmental Justice and Planning (2015). Celebration of the individuals involved in environmental justice work across the country and how their transformative actions are helping over-burdened and under-resourced communities become more healthy, viable and sustainable.

Environmental Justice: A New Model for Planning in Underserved Communities (2014). The webinar explores how environmental justice is a forward-thinking, sustainable approach, and experts share why a discussion about environmental justice is important given the renewed focus on social equity and planning among professionals.

Nature Brought us Together(2012). Bayview Citizens for Social Justice was the recipient of an EPA Environmental Justice Small Grant in 1997. The video summarizes how the residents of Bayview developed a plan to chart a course forward, for both the people and the landscape.

Addressing Environmental Justice in Brownfield Communities (2009). Brochure discussing the work of EPA's Brownfields Program to promote environmental justice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equitable Development and Environmental Justice | US EPA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page talks about environmental justice as a place-based, urban planning, and development issue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Equitable development is an approach for meeting the needs of underserved communities through policies and programs that reduce disparities while fostering places that are healthy and vibrant. It is increasingly considered an effective placed-based action for creating strong and livable communities.

Today, there are clear initiatives, tangible examples, and award-winning projects that demonstrate the approach as a means for rebuilding America's communities. The outcomes of equitable development are the result of clearly set expectations, collaborative problem solving, and persistent leadership.

It is a fair question to ask "how does equitable development differ from other place-based approaches?"

Equitable development is driven by priorities and values as well as clear expectations that the outcomes from development need to be responsive to underserved populations and vulnerable groups, in addition to using innovative design strategies and sustainable policies. Acknowledging and understanding both is necessary for sustaining environmental justice.

Lower-income citizens and people of color are successfully guiding the changes that occur within their communities rather than reacting to them. This unique narrative is often missing from prevailing planning, design, and place-based discussions. EPA sees value in elevating this narrative because it draws attention to solutions from environmental justice actions.

Environmental Justice as a Planning Issue

As a public policy issue, environmental justice is often framed and presented in the context of the law, public health, waste management, and public involvement. However, other factors contributing to the hardships experienced by communities with environmental justice concerns include failures in planning or enforcing proper zoning, or the incompatibility of land uses.

This relationship was understood by delegates who attended the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991. An outcome of the Summit was the adoption of seventeen Principles of Environmental Justice. Approximately one-third of these principles are relevant to planning, urban policy, and management of the built environment. The prevalence of this theme within the Principles of Environmental Justice suggests:

Environmental justice strives to address environmental challenges in an upstream manner by being proactive;

Environmental justice has a long history of targeting untenable practices in housing, land use, transportation, industrial siting, health care, and sanitation; and

Environmental justice is a cross-cutting issue as evidenced by the fact that the disparate impacts of redlining, infrastructure decline, deteriorating housing, lead poisoning, industrial pollution, concentrated poverty and unemployment are related problems.

Problems that are interrelated require comprehensive solutions, and the solutions need to be accessible for persons who experience the disproportionate burden.

The concept of environmental justice is not foreign to planners. Until recently, the challenge has been:

Framing how to implement it during the planning process.

Visualizing the product from that process.

Correcting the misperception that addressing environmental justice may slow down the planning process.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of researchers and advocates, the creative thinking of planners and architects, and the compelling results of determined community builders, these barriers are coming down. Communities are finding ways to better align environmental justice and planning as complementary quality of life goals.

One method of alignment is through equitable development. Equitable development is simply a place-based approach for encouraging environmental justice. In the context of environmental justice and planning, equitable development improves public involvement; supports collaborative problem solving; and makes a visible difference in communities that are underserved, under-resourced, and overburdened.

Gentrification

Gentrification commonly refers to 'the process of neighborhood change that occurs as places of lower real estate value are transformed into places of higher real estate value.' In recent years, gentrification has become an increasingly common occurrence because of the growing popularity of urban centers and existing communities. Gentrification is a nuanced process whose outcomes may be viewed as:

positive based on improvements to physical and economic infrastructure;

negative when cultural assets and cherished institutions are compromised; or

both positive and negative when important services (retail, housing, transportation, and the like) are provided, but are unaffordable by long-standing residents.

Some scholars argue gentrification is good because it contributes to job growth, a larger tax base, higher property values, and opportunities to expand services or offer new ones. On the other hand, failing to acknowledge the differential health burdens experienced by low and moderate income populations when communities transition, is not socially responsible nor sustainable.

In the context of environmental justice, national leaders offered an insightful and cogent position on the subject when the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) issued the report Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization, and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of Hope in December 1996. This scholarship is important because environmental justice proponents were sensitive to the fact that reinvestment activities had the potential to either alleviate vulnerabilities or amplify vulnerabilities that were experienced by persons living in communities that are underserved and over-burdened. Also, the report is a reminder of the necessity to properly analyze the environmental effects, including human health, economic and social effects, of Federal actions as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

Gentrification is an environmental issue, and the principle of fairness suggests the burden of policies that are necessary for society - like protecting the environment - should not be borne by a small minority who happen to be victimized by their side effects. Concerns about gentrification should not be interpreted as unwillingness to embrace change or new development. Public push back often reflects frustration with past failures of the public involvement process, concern that cherished institutions may be lost, or fear of involuntary displacement.

The progressive path forward on gentrification requires expansive concepts for encouraging sustainable communities, like equitable development, not restrictive approaches. City officials, developers, policy makers, advocates, business owners and residents should expand their knowledge base, devise strategies, and form alliances that are deliberate in actively managing gentrification as well as the differential burdens that may beset populations and institutions that are less resilient to shifts in the market.

Equitable Development Workshop

The Equitable Development Workshop has been a feature of the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference since 2010. Through the workshop, EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and the Office of Sustainable Communities (now the Office of Community Revitalization) partner to deliver an interesting and informative program. 'Environmental justice' and 'smart growth' are connected issues. Both share the position that the environment is defined as "where we live, where we work, and where we play.' Each year, the workshop objective is to bring an increasing number of people from environmental justice and smart growth communities together to learn from one another.

Can't make it to the workshop? Follow along on Twitter.

Equitable Development in Practice

ReGenesis Project - Spartanburg, SC

The ReGenesis Project easily reveals the connections between land use, environmental justice, and sustainability. In the late 1990s, Harold Mitchell, Jr. linked health concerns in the Arkwright and Forest Park neighborhoods within Spartanburg to the pollution in both communities. He formed an organization called ReGenesis to represent neighborhood interests in cleaning up contaminated and abandoned property as well as revitalizing the surrounding community. This project is a model for collaborative problem solving that shows how citizens can achieve extraordinary outcomes such as cleaning up two Superfund sites; managing vacant properties and brownfields; and conducting community design charettes. Since inception, ReGenesis has leveraged a $20K EPA grant into $270 million dollars in community reinvestment for a 500 acre site. Residents in Arkwright and Forest Park are demonstrating how past environmental injustices, caused by limited zoning restrictions and land use controls, can be corrected through community planning strategies.

Fruitvale Transit Village - Oakland, CA

The Fruitvale Transit Village reveals the key to creating truly sustainable communities is to be pliable. In 1990, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) had the option of advancing a construction proposal which lacked community support or working with residents of the Fruitvale District to devise a plan for the area. The Fruitvale community, with the support of the Unity Council, rejected BART's proposal for a multi-level parking garage as being poorly conceived and designed. Residents in the community didn't have objections to new construction. Instead, they wanted BART to plan with them rather than for them. Eventually, the transit authority decided it would be better to invest in public involvement and frame a vision that would be informed by the local knowledge of residents who would be impacted by the project. The outcome is a transit-oriented development that helps to connect the community rather than act as a buffer between neighborhood assets. Fruitvale Transit Village is a clear reminder that penetrating new audiences and leveraging untapped talent will be critical to the success of place-based initiatives.

Westside Specific Plan - National City, CA

The Westside Specific Plan is the outcome of collaboration among community, environmental and local government interests to create a successful neighborhood planning process. In December 2013, National City, California, raised the bar for neighborhood planning by completing the cleanup of a site to make way for 201 affordable housing units that will meet several community requests: the need for affordable living, access to public transit and access to open green space. The plan builds on an amortization ordinance passed by National City in 2006, and the regulation helps to phase-out non-compatible land uses. Residents of National City and their partners, including the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), worked tirelessly together for ten years to ensure city plans accurately reflected community needs. Also, EHC produced a video learning tool to share key lessons of community planning and community member involvement more broadly. Today, partners are celebrating Westside National City for its commitment to healthy neighborhoods.

Other Resources

Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development (2013). Discusses land use and community design strategies that community-based organizations, local and regional decision-makers, developers, and other stakeholders can use to build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods.

Unintended Impacts of Redevelopment and Revitalization Efforts in Five Environmental Justice Communities (2006). Contains recommendations on avoiding the displacement that can follow successful brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.

Breakthrough Communities: Celebrating the Victories of Environmental Justice and Planning (2015). Celebration of the individuals involved in environmental justice work across the country and how their transformative actions are helping over-burdened and under-resourced communities become more healthy, viable and sustainable.

Environmental Justice: A New Model for Planning in Underserved Communities (2014). The webinar explores how environmental justice is a forward-thinking, sustainable approach, and experts share why a discussion about environmental justice is important given the renewed focus on social equity and planning among professionals.

Nature Brought us Together(2012). Bayview Citizens for Social Justice was the recipient of an EPA Environmental Justice Small Grant in 1997. The video summarizes how the residents of Bayview developed a plan to chart a course forward, for both the people and the landscape.

Addressing Environmental Justice in Brownfield Communities (2009). Brochure discussing the work of EPA's Brownfields Program to promote environmental justice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equitable Development and Environmental Justice | US EPA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page talks about environmental justice as a place-based, urban planning, and development issue.

# data[].attributes.body
Jennifer Rangel grew up in an underserved community. She co-founded a non-profit (RAYO Planning) for her community. As a kid, she didn't understand zoning and land use, the non-profit aims to educate people in the community on those things.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Jennifer Rangel shines a light on urban planning for underserved communities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Photography by Kathy Tran. Jennifer Rangel felt like an outsider growing up in Oak Cliff because her family didn't have a car, and their housing