Hosted by The Program on Chinese Cites (PCC)
Date: May 2, 2024, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM EST
Topics: “Integration as Adaptation: Advancing Research and Practice for Inclusive Climate Receiving Communities”, “Is Housing Assistance Associated With Mental Health?”, “Adaptability of Low-Income Communities in Postdisaster Relocation”
Speakers: Yu Wang, Duanshuai Shen, Jiaming Xu
Mentor: Professor Yan Song
Sharing Articles: “Is Housing Assistance Associated With Mental Health? If So, How?”
Presenter: Duanshuai Shen
Abstract: Approximately 5 million families in the United States receive federal housing assistance. Research from the 1990s found that residents of public housing programs (one of the two main types of federal housing assistance) commonly suffer from poor mental health. Subsequent studies often lacked effective comparisons to determine whether residents were already in poor mental health when they entered the program or whether the program led to worse mental health outcomes. In “Is Housing Assistance Associated With Mental Health?” (Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 90, No. 1), Atticus Jaramillo and William Rohe tested the direct relationship between housing assistance and the mental health outcomes of depression and anxiety. Additionally, the study tested indirect relationships, focusing on whether housing assistance impacts mental health by affecting psychological stress, a sense of control over living conditions, and opportunities to experience discrimination.
Sharing Articles: “Adaptability of Low-Income Communities in Postdisaster Relocation”
Presenter: Jiaming Xu
Abstract: Community relocation has become a global policy option to address natural disasters caused by climate change and is a planning response strategy to predict future catastrophic events and reduce post-disaster losses. However, existing research lacks long-term follow-up studies on community planning and implementation after relocation. As post-disaster recovery and resettlement is an ongoing multi-year process, residents’ attitudes towards disaster risks and resettlement continuously change, and their adaptation strategies evolve. To assess the effectiveness of the community resettlement process and outcomes, ongoing attention from governments, planners, and researchers to the dynamic experiences of residents during relocation is necessary. In “Adaptability of Low-Income Communities in Postdisaster Relocation” (Journal of the American Planning Association Volume 90, 2024 – Issue 1), Kanako Iuchi focuses on a resettlement community planned by the Philippine government in response to Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, revealing the changing perspectives and experiences of the government, residents, and NGOs. Through interviews, observations, and long-term engagement, Iuchi studied a large-scale relocation of a coastal community in Tacloban City. This six-year ongoing follow-up study reveals residents’ strategies and perceptions of community relocation and how these strategies and perceptions interact with the changing physical and social environment of the new resettlement community.
Sharing Articles: “Integration as Adaptation: Advancing Research and Practice for Inclusive Climate Receiving Communities”
Presenter: Yu Wang
Abstract: Hannah Teicher, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and independent consultant Patric Marchman, through iterative search methods combining academic literature, media reports, and policy documents, comprehensively understood the complexities of climate migration and receiving communities. In the article “Integration as Adaptation: Advancing Research and Practice for Inclusive Climate Receiving Communities” (Journal of the American Planning Association, 2024, Vol. 90, No. 1), they addressed the issue of population migration caused by extreme climate changes and how urban planning and policy-making can help these migrants integrate better into new communities. Planners proactively prepare receiving communities to welcome new immigrants. This involves more than just providing housing; it also includes providing infrastructure, social services, and economic growth opportunities, as well as managing relations between new immigrants and existing residents to avoid social tensions.
