The relationships between neighbourhood vacancy, probable PTSD, and health-related quality of life in flood-disaster-impacted communities

Excessive amounts of neighbourhood vacant land and abandoned structures can significantly lower community and outsider perceptions, and ultimately impact the mental health conditions of inhabitants. While depopulation, economic conditions and land use dynamics can all play a role in the amount of neighbourhood-scaled vacancies and structural abandonment, natural disaster events such as flooding can also exacerbate the ratio of vacant to non-vacant properties in cities and neighbourhoods through resultant building damage and resident relocations. Examinations on post-disaster mental health are limited, and even less is known about the extent of vacant and abandoned properties on mental health, especially within the disaster recovery context. Using survey responses ( n=257) from Houston, TX, USA, from Hurricane Harvey stricken neighbourhoods, this study quantitatively examines how vacancy …