How we live and where we live have a profound influence on our health. In fact, most experts believe that lifestyle choices like diet, physical activity, and smoking, along with social circumstances like poverty and poor educational opportunities, are more powerful predictors of health and wellbeing than genetics or access to good health care.

In this episode, we are going to talk about a particularly strong, but often underappreciated, influence on health – the quality of housing. This has become especially important because of a growing crisis of housing affordability. That is, more and more people, especially those with low income, are unable to find an affordable, decent place to live, with serious consequences for their health.

Joining us to talk about housing, health, and how to address the problem of access to affordable, safe homes is Judge Fern Fisher, Special Assistant for Social Justice Initiatives to the Dean of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. She is also former Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for New York City Courts and served as the Director of the New York State Courts Access to Justice Program. Judge Fisher is accompanied by a law student from her course that examines issues in health and housing.

Resources:

NYCourts.gov