Parallel Session 2: Role of HIA in the Environmental Review Process: tool for community engagement and agency engagement in decision making

Baltimore Washington Rail Intermodal Facility HIA:

Lessons learned in capacity building and community participation

Ruth Lindberg, Program Manager, National Center for Healthy Housing, USA

 

Project Context:

• Panama Canal Authority widening canal
• ...

Intermodal facility:

• Allow double stacked containers with the aim of moving more goods by rail than road

 

Community context

• 4 proposed candidate sites, do nothing option and potentially another additional candidate sites
  
• Two sites - rural area, small town, sense of community, peacefulness, people try to support each other
• One rural area had 11 correctional community and a waste treatment facility.

 

Key health topics:

• Air quality
• Noise
• Employment
• Neighbourhood resources
• Water quality

 

 

• Key issue was health equity and how do you avoid burden already vulnerable communities.
  
• Communities have been pitted against each oth with each saying that the other communities are likely to be better places to put the facility.
• A lot of community distrust, don't feel they are getting truthful responses from government, don't feel involved in the process.

 

 

Policy Context

• 4 key agency decision-makers
• Voluntary or Regulatory as part of EIA
• NEPA has a health reference but found decision-makers say that it is already being coved or that health is not part of the Act and hence not needed.
• Asked to do an integrated EIA and HIA but this was not taken up by decision-makers
• We conducted HIA separately from the EIA

 

Challenges of engaging agency officials in HIA

• No funding
• No legislative authority
• No capacity

 

 

• Positive - We were in control of the HIA and the data that was used.
• Negative - that it might be disregarded and not seen as part of the process.
• Community still distrustful of using data from government agencies

 

Approaches used to engage:

• Training
• Community forums
• Media outreach
• Use existing meetings on other issues
• Engaged local leaders
• Legislators
• Meetings set up out of work hours

 

Lessons learned

• Set and maintain realistic expectations of HIA influence
• Transparency is critical
• Budget time and resources for engagement
• Engage early and often
• Be prepared for unexpected challenges and setbacks
• Policy change, rumours, lack of information

Lake Merritt HIA

Pilar Lorenzana-Campo, Program Director, Change Lab Solutions, Oakland, California, USA

Public health people, planners and lawyers

 

• Funded by federal transport agency and this for increasing community participation not to do a HIA
• HIA was used as an approach to engaging community
• Had Health Impact Partners, Environmental Justice and oth advocacy and community groups.

Challenges:

• Too many priorities - many community needs, access for transportation, affordable housing, jobs and services, parks and recreation and public safety.
• Had to deal with funding and timeline constraints.

Overcoming:

• We did not collect any data ourselves but got data from other agencies, but that meant that some things we could not analyse because we did not have that data.
• Used strength of relationship between aspects and health to filter and prioritise issues.
• We developed a clear policy target - affordable housing

Affordable housing strategies:

• Ensure that existing regional target is maintained 30% affordable.
• Plan and develop family housing
• Provide a development incentive to build affordable housing

Challenges:

• Push back from decision-makers, but was mitigated by us identifying the positive impacts of the project.
• Congratulating them on the positives helped to develop trust and an improved relationship.
• Decision-makers came back and asked to look at other documents and had opportunity to provide input into developing policies.

Good stuff

• Building capacity around health and built environment
• A new dynamic in the conversation
• Incorporation of some recommendations into draft plan
• Use of HIA in other projects

 

 

Q&A

Q: How did you Do the health assessment on affordable housing?

A: Tried to see where the affordable housing Was and what type of affordable housing there was - restricted and unrestricted, a lot more unrestricted, these units were at risk, this had an implication of forcing people to move. Current incentives are only for 12% rather than the target of 30%, an example is building height by allowing higher levels in return for affordable housing.

 

Q: how do you use HIA without using HIA?

A: in the intermodal facility how did you get funding to do it, we applied for funding through Health Impact Project, Pew Charitable Trust, had strong relationships with local partners. Ho

E that this will be a successful project for how the Transportation Department in terms of engaging communities.

 

Q: There is an equity in relation to the 4 sites you mentioned for the intermodal facility? How can you justify siting for example the community with all the correctional facilities?

A: Still struggling with this issue, I don't think we will be recommending any one site, we hope to provide the positives and negatives in each area and to inform decision-makers who will make the decision. Interesting that the site being dismissed has a lot of greenery while the site added had a lot of negative health indicators probably because more concerns expressed and more vocal local politician in the site that was being dismissed.