Tammie Smith

Health and medicine

Articles

Volunteers and residents in the East End take a fitness walk

Where You Live Matters To Your Health

Recent developments in Richmond, Va., made a story looking at how where you live affects your health a timely endeavor. Through the lens of housing projects in the city's East End, Tammie Smith explains how she reported that residents there have a lower life expectancy than other Richmonders.

Marian DeVeaux, left, and Dick Seely challenged each other with 10 push ups near the end of their two-mile wellness walk around Fairfield Court and the surrounding neighborhood. They and others signed up for the walk through the Fairfield Court Resource Center. James Wallace

Where you live determines how long you live

Richmond, Va.'s, communities differ vastly in the resources available for residents to pursue good health, and the result is a 12-year or more gap in average life expectancy in neighborhoods just miles apart.

Richmond, Virginia’s East End has stark health challenges

Both socioeconomic and public health cases can be made for dismantling the projects. People who live in Richmond, Va.'s, public housing for the duration of their lives are more likely to develop more illness and die younger than residents of other neighborhoods in the region.

First aid for ailing communities

Richmond,Va., is an urban city of approximately 205,000 residents, of which about one in four live in poverty. The city has a poor showing on many health status indicators and outcomes. Within the city, however, there are neighborhoods of $1 million homes and moderate income neighborhoods.