Grant: #74317

Grantee: North Carolina State University 

Principal Investigator: Traci Rose Rider, Ph.D.

Grant Period: 02/01/2017 – 01/31/2019

Budget: $249,852

This project is funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s solicitation, “Engaging Businesses for Health,” which seeks to build the evidence base for private-sector investment to help build a Culture of Health. The goal of this project is to help multifamily developers target private investments to increase health in their communities and to inform municipal polices for integrating community health strategies in multifamily developments.  While connections between housing and health have long been recognized by researchers and policymakers, there is less empirical evidence that could inform decisions within the real estate industry about developing communities with health-focused features.  In particular, little is known about how the real estate industry and its financers make decisions to invest in healthy housing or the impact of such decisions on business outcomes.  Employing a mixed methods approach, this project will undertake five case studies to determine how and why early developers of community health-focused multifamily housing strategies consider and include health and health-related amenities in new projects and estimate the actual and perceived costs and returns for private developers of these strategies.  Deliverables will include a project work plan and annual and final narrative and financial reports. The grantee will also produce paper(s) suitable for publication and present findings at national research meetings and other to stakeholder audiences as appropriate, including the business sector and federal and state policymakers, as part of the deliverables for this grant.

Publications

Design, development, and public health: Conceptualizing health and wellness strategies for multifamily projects through a private development lens
ENQ (Enquiry) | Dec 2018