Children’s HealthWatch Principal Investigator, Dr. Megan Sandel, was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Urban Land Institute Housing Opportunity conference in Denver.
Using Safe and Affordable Housing as a Vaccine for Healthier Children
Medical professionals are now looking “upstream” to determine, based on research, how to improve children’s health through housing, Dr. Megan Sandel, associate professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, told attendees at the ULI Housing Opportunity conference held May 14-16 in Denver.
“We have a new understanding of the interplay of how housing influences health in terms of stability, quality, and the effect on physical and mental health,” said Sandel, who is also principal investigator for Boston-based Children’s HealthWatch, a research and policy organization that focuses on how to alleviate insecurities around hunger, housing, and energy, especially for young children. Hardships are interconnected, Sandel noted, and a family that struggles to pay the rent also struggles to put healthy food on the table and keep the heat and lights on.
