Community led housing, health and wellbeing: a comprehensive literature review

Community Led Housing (CLH) is an umbrella term encompassing several non-profit models of housing delivery, which is used internationally. There has been little comprehensive assessment of the health impacts of housing arrangements where people intentionally live or work together in a community. This systematic review provides the first overview of the health, wellbeing and heath inequality impacts of all forms of CLH. 4,091 literature items were identified from a structured search of eight databases and manual searching for grey literature. Literature published between January 2009 and June 2022, in OECD countries, were eligible. 34 academic and 11 grey literature items were included. The review identifies far more literature reporting that CLH has positive rather than negative impacts, on primary health outcomes and on neighbourhood level factors which impact on health (social contact, employment, safety, environmental sustainability, and affordability). There is a lack of research on CLH impacts on the health of children and young people, and on health inequalities. These findings provide an indication of largely positive impacts of CLH arrangements on health and wellbeing. They indicate the importance of further longitudinal, objective research, and of policies and actions to support this form of housing delivery.