(05/16/19) UCLA Housing Neighborhood & Health Series #4 // D Pfeiffer

A joint endeavor presented by the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate's Housing as Health Care Initiative, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health

"The Scourge of the Snout Home? The Link between Car-Oriented Housing Designs and Neighboring, Nature Engagement and Happiness"

There is growing awareness about how decisions made about the built environment may affect health. Most existing research focuses on the link between health and the qualities of infrastructure and open spaces, such as walkability and access to parks. Relatively little is known about how the design and use of buildings may affect health, including the most important kind of building in the built environment: the home. This research helps to fill this gap by using two surveys from the Phoenix region to explore how the design of the home—whether the home is a car-oriented “snout home” or not—relates to one aspect of health, happiness. I use descriptive statistics and econometric modeling to investigate whether 1) people who live in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of snout homes are unhappier and 2) reduced neighborhood social capital and identification and exposure to nature might account for this dynamic. The findings support these theories while also revealing that people might adapt to (and become happier living in) snout home neighborhoods over time. Overall, this research offers a glimpse into the important role that housing design may play in individual happiness and suggests that revisions to subdivision regulations and retrofitting funds may be warranted to remedy potential happiness-detracting effects of snout home-inundated neighborhoods.

presented by:

Deirdre Pfeiffer, PhD, AICP
Associate Professor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Arizona State University
Visiting Scholar, UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge

May 16, 2019
12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.

Room 43-105
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

**Lunch will be provided.**

Deirdre A. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., AICP, Visiting Scholar for the Ziman Center's UCLA Gilbert Program in Real Estate, Finance and Urban Economics, is an Associate Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Dr. Pfeiffer is a housing planning scholar, with expertise on housing as a cause and effect of growing social inequality and the role of housing planning in meeting the needs of diverse social groups. Her current research explores the interconnections between housing and health, the housing experiences of Millennials and seniors, and the effects of single-family rentals on neighborhoods. She holds an MA and a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA.

For any questions, please contact Christina Green (christina.green@anderson.ucla.edu).