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• !e public associates "housing" with assisted housing. #e public assumes that discussions about housing are primarily about low-income groups and subsidized or public housing. • !inking about housing is deeply individualistic. When thinking about problems with housing, the public tends to attribute causal and moral responsibility to individuals, including both individual landlords and homeowners or renters themselves. Housing problems are seen as the result of poor or irresponsible choices, rather than as the result of structural factors and policies. Similarly, the public assumes that racial and economic segregation are the result of voluntary choices by individuals to live near people "like them," rather than of decisions at the systems level. • Housing is understood as a consumer good. #e public thinks of housing as a consumer good that is subject to the vagaries of the market. As a consumer good, disparities in housing quality are thought of as an inevitable and natural product of market forces. Consumerist thinking leads the public to conclude that nothing can or should be done to change housing conditions. • Members of the public tend to think about housing in terms of basic needs. #e public sees housing as a "place to lay your head," and assumes that as long as housing provides for basic needs —shelter, heat, etc.—it is "ne. #e public lacks a "ne-grained understanding of how housing quality can vary and of how it can harm or promote health and well-being in more complex ways. • !e public recognizes that place has a role in shaping health and well-being. Although this understanding is recessive, it is available. While the public more frequently focuses on individual choices and the housing market, members of the public are capable of reasoning about the ways in which people's environments shape the opportunities available to them and, in turn, shape their well-being. • Visible contaminants are top of mind. When thinking about health threats, the public focuses primarily on visible contaminants as sources of harm. #e public is less aware of how invisible toxins (radon, carbon monoxide, etc.) threaten health. • !e public is deeply ambivalent about the government's role in housing. While the public sometimes models government intervention as necessary to ensure the safety and health of housing, the public is also deeply skeptical about government's role, viewing government as corrupt and inept. • Fatalism and individualism dominate thinking about solutions. As a result of the assumption that the housing market is beyond control and due to lack of understanding about how systems and policies shape housing conditions, the public is largely fatalistic about the possibility of improving housing, seeing this as an impossible goal. When thinking about solutions, the public falls back on individual choice, as the realm that people can control, suggesting that individuals must make better choices about their own housing situation if they want to improve it. "A House, a Tent, a Box": Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understanding of Healthy Housing 6

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