!e Public View
Below, we present the cultural models—shared assumptions and patterns of thinking—that shape how the
American public thinks about housing generally and healthy housing more speci"cally. #e cultural
models that people draw upon to think about housing include multiple, sometimes con$icting ways of
thinking. #ese represent the public's available ways of thinking. However, some of these models are more
dominant than others, in the sense that they are consistently top-of-mind and play a strong role in shaping
public thinking. Other ways of thinking are more recessive, playing a less prominent role in public
thinking.
We organize our "ndings around four primary questions that people use cultural models to answer:
1. What is housing?
2. What is good housing?
3. How does housing affect health?
4. What could be done to improve housing?
What Is Housing?
Analysis revealed two top-of-mind, de"nitional models that dominate people's thinking about what
housing is. When asked about housing, interview participants assumed that housing is about subsidized
housing, or that housing is about major expenses.
A. !e Housing Is Assisted Housing model. #e very word "housing" was o%en associated with Section 8
or assisted housing in some way (colloquially, "the projects"). Participants assumed that questions
about "housing" were questions about public or subsidized housing. #ese associations cued thinking
about poverty and race, activating unproductive models of dependency that FrameWorks has
identi"ed in other research.
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Participant: For some reason, when you say "housing," I think of low-income housing like
the projects.
—
Participant: When I think of housing, I think of government assistance.
Interviewer: Tell me a little bit more about that—government assistance—what does that
mean?
Participant: It could be military. It could be Section 8.
B. !e Rising Costs model. #e public associates housing with rising costs that have gotten "out of
control." #is pattern of thinking was evident across the socioeconomic spectrum, appearing in
participants' talk about both rising rents and high mortgage payments. Critically, the model assumes
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