Impact of NYC Housing Conditions on Mental Health at the Community Level: Negative Effects of Crowding May Be Culturally Dependent

Housing instability has negative impacts on mental health, yet few studies have examined multiple factors of instability together, or this link in New York City (NYC) neighborhoods. This paper investigates the effects of rent burden, crowding, eviction, and home ownership on rates of depression, serious psychological distress, and psychiatric hospitalization with immigrant rates used as a moderator for crowding and poverty as a covariant. The analysis utilized publicly available data from NYC Environmental & Health Data Portal from 2007-2022 and the UHF42 geographic unit format to examine the relationship between variables by neighborhoods. Bivariate and multivariate models consistently displayed that, eviction was associated with greater rates of depression, and hospitalizations while home ownership was linked to lower rates of mental health factors, especially depression. Our analyses with poverty suggest that eviction presents a unique condition not related to poverty, and this may also be the case for home ownership. As such, poverty may be the root cause of psychological distress beyond housing factors, but not depression or psychiatric hospitalization. Crowding was associated with poorer mental health in isolation only, and using immigrant population as a moderator of the effects of crowding on mental health indicated that its effects on mental health may be culturally dependent, contrary to previous research. This may suggest that our understanding of crowding may be flawed. Future research should utilize more expansive data to explore differences in income levels and ethnicity within NYC and other cities.