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"A House, a Tent, a Box": Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understanding of Healthy Housing 34 features of the market, and the responsibility for addressing housing quality is afforded narrowly and exclusively to individuals, leaving little room to think about the need for and importance of systems- or policy-level actions. 3. Avoid activating the Just the Basics model, even when talking about homelessness. When thinking with this model, the public is unable to see that there are different degrees of housing quality, and that these variations in quality have important implications for health outcomes. 4. Avoid leading communications with or focusing messages on vivid depictions of greedy slumlords. #is type of thinking, while highly salient, leads people towards individualistic thinking about housing issues and away from being able to productive consider housing issues from a more systemic, contextual perspective. For example, avoid dramatic stories about individual landlords who have let their buildings fall into disrepair and put their residents' health at risk. #ese stories lead people to "nd fault with individual landlords, but not with the systems and policies that perpetuate these actions and fail to protect renters. 5. Avoid triggering the Good Old Days and the Rising Costs models. If communicators can steer clear of these models they can limit the degree to which members of the public bring fatalistic judgments to bear in thinking about whether meaningful improvements to health and housing are possible. all ages. #e degree to which people are able to see children as susceptible to the conditions around them is a promising "nding for housing communicators. #e challenge ahead is to "nd out if and how this deep assumption about the connections between children, environments, and outcomes might be expanded such that it applies to people more generally. 3. When discussing rental housing, focus on government regulation and enforcement of housing codes. #is is an area where people see a clear and productive role for government and maintain a strong sense of public responsibility for housing issues. 4. Cue and build on the Stress Affects Health model. Finding frames that activate this way of thinking about the connections between housing and health will help communicators bridge to and encourage productive thinking about other connections between housing and well-being. 5. Build on the existing recognition of race and class segregation. Cuing this way of thinking and explaining how residential segregation results from speci"c policies, rather than people's desires to live near those "like them," will be a productive strategy for those seeking to communicate about housing equity issues. 6. Fill in holes in people's understanding of contaminants. Our research shows the importance of highlighting the persistence of the problem of household toxins, and explaining how common toxins such as lead, radon, carbon monoxide, and mold affect health. Do not assume that the public knows that these are still problems or how they cause harm.

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