Housing access and risk of gun violence are closely connected.
Among the studies showing the connection is a recent analysis from the University of Chicago, which found a link between evictions and shootings. Studies have also drawn a link between vacant homes and elevated gun violence.
This connection is a key part of understanding gun violence as a public health crisis. Advocates and experts say shootings can be reduced through investments in the underlying life conditions that put people at greater risk of gun violence: income, housing and food security, schools and living environments (also called, the social determinants of health).
Public health has long been tied to housing issues. Poor housing is tied to several negative health outcomes, including respiratory infections, asthma, lead poisoning, injuries, mental health, infectious diseases, chronic illnesses and poor nutrition.
This guide will help you learn how to cover one of those social determinants of health, housing, and how it connects to gun violence.
The research
That University of Chicago study, published in JAMA Network Open last December, found that every 1% increase in the eviction rate in a particular census tract was associated with 2.66 additional shootings.
Researchers used survey data from the Healthy Chicago Survey of nearly 14,000 respondents with Cook County eviction records and shootings data from the Chicago Police Department.
“Eviction, or the threat of eviction, can disrupt stability for both the affected individual and their neighbors, which may be expected to worsen collective efficacy and, therefore, reduce constraints on firearm violence,” the study reads.
If a resident personally experienced eviction, the study found, they were also likely to experience
1.04 more shootings near where they live.
Evictions were a stronger predictor of exposure to gun violence than household income, having less than a high school diploma and a person’s race, researchers found.
The study also pointed to prior research in Boston and Philadelphia that had similar findings and referenced studies linking evictions with lower cognitive scores in children, reduced engagement and persistent poverty.
A 2023 study in The British Journal of Criminology found that changes in housing affordability are significantly associated with rising gun violence in general,” especially in majority-Black neighborhoods.
Evictions are also more influential in shaping gun violence in communities facing higher rents, the study found.
A 1999 Department of Justice study looked at the risk of gun violence while living in public housing.
Research on gun violence and housing goes back several years, which researchers say demonstrates how this remains an enduring crisis.
“Gun-related crime remains a serious problem in public housing,” the study reads. “Persons who reside in public housing are over twice as likely to suffer from firearm-related victimization as other members of the population. Beyond crime and violence, firearms are a significant source of physical and financial damage in American communities.”
Reporting examples
Last December, The Trace reported on an ambitious $2 billion plan in Philadelphia to build or rehab 30,000 homes in four years.
City officials hope the initiative will help alleviate housing affordability issues and drive down violent crime.
In 2022, a colleague and I at the Kansas City Star reported on vacancy and gun violence in Kansas City and St. Louis. We used city vacancy data and shooting figures from the Gun Violence Archive and found that all but one of the top 10 neighborhoods for shootings had higher-than-average vacant lot rates.
In a separate story, my colleagues also looked at evictions in Kansas City and how they relate to gun violence.
In fact, of the 10 census tracts with the highest numbers of shootings they examined, all but one also had higher-than-average eviction rates.
Resources
- The University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention is a great resource overall on gun violence. It is working on a study examining the relationship between housing instability factors and firearm violence in Detroit.
- Gun Violence Archive is a non-profit that provides comprehensive and detailed data on gun violence incidents in the U.S. The online archive collects information on incidents from 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily to provide near-real time data about gun violence.
- Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions is a collaboration between gun violence researchers and prevention advocates to examine and promote policies and programs to improve community safety.
