Other projects

Other projects underway include those being undertaken by post-graduate students, on issues such as temporary housing, and fuel poverty

Residential Movement, Attachment and Health

This project is undertaken as a component of the FRST funded research programme Building Attachment in Communities Affected by Transience and Mobility led by Kay Saville-Smith (CRESA) and involving a cross-organisational research team. The health component of the project explores the interaction between residential movement and health in four local communities: Amuri, Cannons Creek/Waitangirua, Kawerau and Opotiki. Following themes identified in existing literature, the project looks at the impact of movement and attachment on the perceived health and well-being of individuals, families and communities, as well as considering how provision of and access to health care might influence decisions to stay or leave a community.

Second-hand smoke and housing

This work is looking at the exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) of New Zealanders at home, and the health impacts, attitudes, and knowledge related to SHS. Associated work is being conducted on the effectiveness of policies to get SHS out of private places. A survey was conducted in December 2004 (PDF) to estimate the exposure of, and behaviours regarding secondhand smoke in the flatting population. The smoking status and SHS exposure data from the Insulation and Mould study is being analysed to examine the relationships for that population between the presence of smoking and smokers, and health.

Housing Policy, Crowding and Meningococcal Disease

This work is examining the connections between New Zealand’s housing policy in the early 1990s, with the sale of state houses and the introduction of market rentals for the remaining state houses, and patterns of occupancy and crowding in both state and private houses. These patterns will then be examined in the context of the meningococcal epidemic that emerged in the 1990s, and which has been strongly associated with crowding in previous studies.

Mould in Homes

This work is examines both (i) the experience of living in a mouldy home, and (ii) the factors associated with a home being mouldy.