Indicators, guidance and tools
The WHO Housing and health guidelines
To reduce the health burden due to unsafe and substandard housing, WHO has developed the WHO Housing and health guidelines, which bring together the most recent evidence to provide practical recommendations promoting healthy housing. Based on newly commissioned systematic reviews, the guidelines provide recommendations relevant to inadequate living space (crowding), low and high indoor temperatures, injury hazards in the home, and accessibility of housing for people with functional impairments. In addition, the guidelines identify and summarize existing WHO guidelines and recommendations related to housing, with respect to water quality, air quality, neighbourhood noise, asbestos, lead, tobacco smoke and radon.
The guidelines take a comprehensive, multisectoral perspective on the issue of housing and health and highlight co-benefits of interventions addressing several risk factors at the same time. As such, housing improvement measures are not only discussed in relation to their health benefits but also as regards to their positive impact on other areas such as climate change mitigation or healthy urban environments.
The WHO Housing and health guidelines aim at informing housing policies, regulations and legislation at the national, regional and local level and are further relevant in the daily activities of implementing actors who are directly involved in the design, construction, maintenance and demolition of housing in ways that influence human health and safety. The guidelines therefore emphasize the importance of collaboration between the health and other sectors and joint efforts across all government levels to promote healthy housing. The guidelines’ implementation in countries will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on good health and well-being (SDG 3), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), reduced inequality (SDG 10), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13).
WHO Housing and health guidelines
The WHO Healthy Housing Toolkit
To support the implementation of the guidelines in countries, WHO is developing a modular implementation toolkit. The tools aim at translating the global evidence-based recommendations into context-specific action at the policy and programme level.
The first key element of the WHO Healthy Housing Toolkit is a repository of policies, regulations and legislation promoting health through housing containing examples from all six WHO regions. The repository serves as an aid for policy-makers and stakeholders seeking to plan, formulate and implement similar policies aimed at promoting healthy and safe housing for all. The repository is a living document and will be expanded as the implementation of the guidelines proceeds.
The repository is accompanied by a report summarizing the main findings of the comprehensive policy review and analysing the main barriers and enablers for their implementation at the local or national level. The report further provides a set of eight best practice principles for the effective formulation and implementation of housing policies with the potential to promote health.
