• Despite substantial government investment aimed at reducing health disparities, large differences in health persist across geographic and racial lines in the United States. One prominent theory is that these health disparities are driven in part by disparities in the neighborhood environments where people live.

    February 26, 2024

  • Black History Month has evolved over the years from a vehicle to highlight the achievements of Black Americans, into a time for fostering a deeper understanding of the country’s history and having conversations around questions of racial equity.

    February 20, 2024

  • This comprehensive report unveils the systemic challenges and aspirations of Asheville's Black community through participatory research. It emphasizes the community's perspectives on systemic racism affecting various sectors such as housing, education, employment, healthcare, and the criminal justice system.

    February 19, 2024

  • A deeper, more complex story lies in the picturesque city of Asheville, North Carolina, known for its vibrant arts scene and historic architecture. It's the story of the Black community - a narrative woven with challenges, resilience, and hope. The "Every Black Voice" report, a comprehensive study conducted by the Racial Justice Coalition, reveals Black residents' lived experiences, struggles, and aspirations in Asheville, particularly in light of the city's reparations journey.

    February 19, 2024

  • In 2023, Policies for Action (P4A) maintained its policy research focus on dismantling systems of inequity that drive the gaps in health and wealth along unsurprising racial lines. P4A projects were encouraged to have a racial equity lens in their design, as the evidence mounts for treating racism as a public health issue.

    February 19, 2024

  • As state and federal policymakers work to address climate change through climate investments that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and build resilience—for instance, clean transportation, solar panels, urban greening, transit-oriented housing development—it is critical that investments are geared to support the communities that have been historically marginalized and left behind.

    February 16, 2024

  • Opportunity Zones (OZs) are a government strategy introduced in 2017 to attract increased investment in low-investment census tracts. But are low- to middle-income neighborhoods being elevated and integrated, or are OZs contributing to the darker side of gentrification: rising taxes and neighborhood displacement? Are Opportunity Zones achieving their purpose? New research suggests that they are not.

    February 14, 2024

  • Using data from a unique survey of small-scale landlords who owned residential, non-owner occupied units in Pittsburgh, this study provides experimental evidence for the potential effectiveness of an asset-framing approach to increasing landlords’ participation in the City of Pittsburgh’s Mobility Voucher program.

    February 6, 2024

  • This post originally appeared on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Blog.

    February 5, 2024

  • As part of Policies for Action’s (P4A’s) recent call for proposals to investigate policies to reduce the racial wealth gap, we recognized the opportunity to center the people and places most distant from privilege and power.

    December 18, 2023

  • California has enacted laws specifically intended to protect Tribal cultural resources and Tribal traditional cultural sites. But are these laws working?

    December 15, 2023

  • Many cities are grappling with the complexities of neighborhood change, gentrification, and shifting geographies of racially segregated poverty. One of the greatest policy challenges is how to support residents to be able to stay in place, and, even more difficult, how to return to the neighborhood after it’s begun to gentrify.

    December 13, 2023