NCHH Strategic Framework 2026-2030:

NCHH as Leader and Catalyst

 

Tagline

Better housing, better health.

Mission

We advance healthy housing by moving evidence into action so people and communities can thrive.

Vision

Every home supports the health, safety, and well-being of the people who live there.

We accelerate change by helping others act on what works.

Creating healthier housing takes more than any one organization acting alone. It requires researchers, policymakers, health and housing professionals, community leaders, funders, and many others working toward a common goal. As a trusted leader and field catalyst, NCHH helps connect these efforts—turning evidence into practical action, helping ideas travel farther, and supporting lasting solutions that improve people’s lives.

We believe that the strongest solutions emerge when research informs practice, practice shapes policy, and communities help guide both. By connecting people, knowledge, and action, we help proven ideas spread, adapt, and create lasting impact. We are working toward a future where healthy housing is the expectation—not the exception. We will:

Advance Evidence and Innovation

We generate, interpret, and mobilize credible evidence to address existing and emerging housing-related health risks. We:

• Advance research and science on housing conditions, health, climate, and emerging hazards.
• Translate evidence into practical tools, standards, and guidance.
• Help the field confidently navigate an increasingly complex landscape of information, evidence, policy, technology, and practice.
• Support implementation-focused solutions grounded in scientific integrity and public trust.

Shape Policy and Systems

We work across sectors to strengthen policies, systems, partnerships, and public understanding that support healthy housing and healthier communities. We:

• Advance federal, state, and local policy solutions.
• Advocate for evidence-informed policies that improve housing and health.
• Build, strengthen, and support coalitions that drive collective action and lasting change.
• Help shape integrated approaches across housing, health, climate, and equity.
• Communicate and engage effectively with key audiences and decision makers through science and storytelling.
• Support trusted messengers who bring healthy housing solutions to the people and places where they can have the greatest impact.

Accelerate Community Action

We partner with communities to build the knowledge, relationships, and capacity needed to turn healthy housing goals into lasting change. We:

• Provide technical assistance, coaching, and strategic support.
• Build local leadership, implementation capacity, and peer learning networks that sustain long-term progress.
• Expand flexible, rapid-response support to help more communities adapt to changing opportunities and navigate funding, policy, and operational challenges.
• Help communities communicate the value of healthy housing to key audiences.
• Foster community-centered solutions grounded in local context and partnership.

Build the Field

We invest in the relationships, leadership, and institutions that enable the healthy housing field to create lasting impact. We:

• Convene and connect practitioners, researchers, advocates, and partners to share knowledge and mobilize collective action.
• Support leadership development in the next generation of healthy housing leaders.
• Strengthen governance, organizational sustainability, and financial resilience across the field and within NCHH.
• Cultivate enduring partnerships that expand the reach and impact of healthy housing.
• Explore new approaches that expand public engagement with healthy housing.
• Strengthen NCHH’s people, systems, and culture to support long-term leadership and impact.

Cross-Cutting Commitments/How We Work

Across all pillars, we will:

• Center equity and community voice.
• Build trust through credible, practical action.
• Foster collaboration across sectors and disciplines.
• Remain agile in response to emerging challenges and opportunities.
• Communicate clearly and effectively.
• Stay curious, adaptive, and open to emerging technologies and new ways of working.
• Ground our work in evidence with an unwavering focus on real-world impact.

Why Housing Matters

Healthy housing is one of the most powerful investments we can make in our nation’s future. It protects health, strengthens communities, lowers costs, creates jobs, improves resilience, and helps people of all ages thrive.

• Ten people die of asthma every day in the U.S., and most of those deaths are preventable. Millions more with asthma are impacted by environmental conditions that make it hard to go to school or work or fully exercise their right to a pursuit of happiness.
• Half a million children in the U.S. (that’s nearly 24,000 kindergarten classrooms full of kids) have been exposed to levels of lead that can compromise their ability to learn and thrive. Adults aren’t
  

  Download NCHH’s Strategic Plan here.

  immune, either—millions are affected by lead exposure, and a recent study estimated that lead kills 5.5 million adults each year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. These exposures and the harm they cause are also largely avoidable.

• An estimated 40-45% of U.S. homes have health and safety hazards, and this problem isn’t confined to big cities. Over 11.5 million rural homes have hazards, such as pests, lead-based paint, water leaks, foundation problems, and mold; and 22% of rural adults worry about the conditions of their homes affecting their family’s health or safety.
• Poor indoor air quality doesn’t just cause asthma and allergy attacks. It also kills. Approximately 21,000 Americans die each year from radon-related lung cancer deaths, and more than 400 Americans die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning each year. And that doesn’t even begin to account for the fact that those asthma attacks can also be deadly, that heart conditions can also be exacerbated by poor indoor air quality, or that tens of thousands more people have to miss work and school to go to emergency departments and doctor’s offices every year simply because of where they live.
• Poor housing quality may also be associated with higher rates of infectious disease or worse mental health. A study conducted in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic found that counties with higher rates of poor housing quality had higher rates of COVID and higher COVID mortality, even when controlling for other risk factors. With regard to mental health, another study found that poor housing quality was most consistently associated with children’s and adolescents’ development, including worse emotional and behavioral functioning and lower cognitive skills—even more so than housing stability, type, and cost.
• A majority of our growing older adult population wants to age safely and comfortably in their own homes. We know how to make this happen, but every 11 seconds an older adult is treated in the emergency room, and every 19 minutes an older adult dies. Many of these falls happen in and around homes, and many are preventable.
• Extreme weather events (like floods, wildfires, high wind events, extreme heat, and extreme cold) are increasing in their frequency and intensity. In recent years, more than 70% of Americans were impacted by extreme heat alone. Housing is central to how we will weather these threats. It’s where most of us will take shelter, and it is imperative for us to make the investment to ensure that they are safe and healthy places for us to be so that we aren’t just exchanging one threat (a storm) for another (lead poisoning, CO poisoning).
• Nearly three quarters of the homes that will exist in 2050 have already been built, and Americans spend 70% of their time in and around homes. Improving existing housing is one of the greatest opportunities to improve health, resilience, and quality of life.

 

Latest page update: August 6, 2026.