A reexamination of the role of equity in planning is critical at this contentious period in US history. Racism and anti-immigrant sentiments have arisen in our public policy debates, cities have again experienced riots, and inequality has grown. Equity has long been a center of tension throughout planning history, and the field has struggled to balance activism and technocratic expertise. This article provides a literature review to inform and explore how planners can engage equity in this current contentious time period.

Housing quality, stability, and affordability have a direct relationship to socioemotional and physical health. Both city planning and public health have long recognized the role of housing in health, but the complexity of this relationship in regard to infant and maternal health is less understood. Focusing on literature specifically relevant to U.S. metropolitan areas, I conduct a multidisciplinary literature review to understand the influence of housing factors and interventions that impact infant and maternal health. The paper seeks to achieve three primary goals. First, to identify the primary “pathways” by which housing influences infant and maternal health. Second, the review focuses on the role and influence of historical housing discrimination on maternal health outcomes. Third, the review identifies emergent practice-based housing interventions in planning and public health practice to support infant and maternal health. The literature suggests that the impact of housing on infant health is complex, multifaceted, and intergenerational. Historical housing discrimination also directly impacts contemporary infant and maternal health outcomes. Policy interventions to support infant health through housing are just emerging but demonstrate promising outcomes. Structural barriers to housing affordability in the United States will require new resources to foster greater collaboration between the housing and the health sectors.

In order to incentivize regional sustainability planning efforts, in 2010 and 2011 the US Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Sustainable Communities Initiative Regional Planning Grant (SCI-RPG) program grants. SCI presented a unique model of supporting community development goals at a regional scale, with an emphasis on marginalized communities. This study considers the SCI-RPG program through a lens of collective impact, examining our understanding of collective impact and the implications for regional planning for sustainability and justice. We find that the SCI experience incorporates components of collective impact and presents a unique iteration of collaborative governance, which we refer to as “collective impact regionalism.” We find that this process leads to beneficial outcomes to support planning for long-term sustainability, justice, and diverse community development goals but is resource intensive and can be undermined by poor implementation planning.

Lead is well known for its adverse health effects on children, particularly when exposure occurs at earlier ages. The primary source of lead hazards among young children is paint used in buildings built before 1978. Despite being 100% preventable, some children remain exposed and state and local policies often remain reactive. This study presents a methodology for planners and public health practitioners to proactively address lead risks among young children. Using geospatial analyses, this study examines neighborhood level measurement of lead paint hazard in homes and childcare facilities and the concentration of children aged 0–5. Results highlight areas of potential lead paint hazard hotspots within a county in the Midwestern state studied, which coincides with higher concentration of non-white children. This places lead paint hazard in the context of social determinants of health, where existing disparity in distribution of social and economic resources reinforces health inequity. In addition to being proactive, lead poisoning intervention efforts need to be multi-dimensional and coordinated among multiple parties involved. Identifying children in higher lead paint hazard areas, screening and treating them, and repairing their homes and childcare facilities will require close collaboration of healthcare professionals, local housing and planning authorities, and community members.