Team Members
- Jessie Clark, PhD
- Julie Lucero, PhD, MPH
- Victoria Rios
Research Project Description
This research investigates the causes, experiences, and service gaps related to unstable housing within Latinx communities in Northern Nevada. This collaboration seeks to improve health inequities related to housing and race. Our project recognizes the structural forces at play within housing inequities and related housing policies and envisions an urban future in which everyone has fair access to housing, an essential factor in healthy living. To date, city, county, and state policies have approached housing solutions through a one-size-fits all lens, in spite of the varying needs across housing insecure populations. With evidence-based research that outlines the specific experiences and needs of the Latinx community, our project aims to address racial inequalities in housing and the mechanisms by which these inequalities are created and exacerbated. Our contention is that stable housing is an important predictor of health and well-being and that race matters in understanding how housing stability and instability are experienced, navigated, and addressed. Because Latinx households tend to experience housing instability as a family unit, our project focuses on the multigenerational and gendered experiences of the family.
Our research questions are:
- What are the causes of housing instability among Latinx families, and how are families experiencing and navigating housing instability in Washoe County, NV?
- How can affordable housing and food security services better meet the needs of Latinx families?
- How does housing instability impact family structure and influence networks of care and support?
The team will utilize a mixed-methods design guided by Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).
Team Members
Jessie Clark, PhD
Jessie Clark is an Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Nevada Reno. She teaches and researches in political, cultural, and feminist geography and qualitative methods and studies the role of space in producing and addressing social inequalities. She has overseen student- community research partnerships on issues of housing insecurity and believes interdisciplinary and collaborative research can bring about meaningful social change.
Julie Lucero, PhD, MPH
Julie E. Lucero is an Assistant Professor in the School of Community Health Sciences and Director of the Latino Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. Using a community engaged research orientation, Julie strives to achieve health equity by means of education, research, and policy development. Through the identification of modifiable social determinants, community- academic partnerships can reduce the burden of health inequities within underrepresented populations.
Victoria Rios
Victoria Rios is the Northern Nevada Director of Faith in Action Nevada (affiliated with ACTIONN - Acting in Community Together in Organizing Northern Nevada). Victoria’s work in multi-level government and her community outreach experience had led her to strengthen the voter engagement in communities of color. Her passion lies in uplifting marginalized and vulnerable populations through civic engagement in faith-based communities. ACTIONN is a grassroots and non-partisan organization that fights for racial and economic justice in Northern Nevada by engaging faith communities and other stakeholders in community organizing, advocacy, and civic engagement.
