[MUSIC PLAYING]
PRESENTER: Loneliness is the latest epidemic.
And research shows that its impact
is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
The quality of people's relationships
is the single clearest predictor of physical health and quality
of life.
But people on the South Side are being separated
from their neighborhoods, when new businesses move in
and prices go up and some people have to move.
While we can't bring back family and friends,
we can fill the gap in human connection for these minority
communities.
About one million African-Americans
lived in Chicago 15 years ago.
And since then, nearly 200,000 African-Americans
have moved out.
This is a map of the community areas in Chicago in the 1980s.
This is Hyde Park--
number 41.
And that's where we currently are.
As you can see--
in 1980, Hyde Park was over 60% black.
And today, Hyde Park is only 30% black.
Meanwhile, throughout the years, housing prices in Hyde Park
have steadily been increasing.
And it's gone up by 3% in just this past year.
Hyde Park is a good example of a neighborhood
that has been gentrified, meaning
that rent prices have gone up.
And people, usually racial minorities,
cannot afford to keep living in that neighborhood.
I did some research with a community-based organization
over the summer called Greater Auburn-Gresham Development
Corporation.
My team and I were collecting data and researching some ways
to prevent negative effects of gentrification
in South Side communities.
I ended up surveying about 40 residents
and asking what they thought defined their communities.
Residents overwhelmingly said that people
that lived in communities defined their communities.
While they want improvements, they also
want to be able to enjoy those improvements with the people
that they care about.
One of the interviews I did was with the owner
of a small business.
He was a hairdresser.
And I asked him about what changes he wanted
to make in his community.
And what he hoped to see in the future.
He said that he wouldn't have a problem if big businesses came
to the community because they tend
to bring more opportunities for jobs, and products, and things
that people can have the opportunity to buy.
But he said that he wished that the people who
started these businesses were actually
community members themselves.
And this is because people who live in communities
for a long period of time will have that community's best
interests at heart.
And we'll ultimately want to help the community
in the long run with whatever business they're starting.
Whereas with bigger corporations that usually
don't have any stake in the community,
they won't necessarily be thinking that way.
So he, himself, in starting his business just
wanted to improve the community as a whole.
What he was saying was that if people in his community
got more chances to start their own businesses,
then there would be more resources for the community
without the harmful effects of gentrification.
In addition to serving people--
over the summer, I collected data on resources
in different South Side neighborhoods.
I found that in the neighborhood of Auburn-Gresham,
there were no large inpatient hospitals.
Just for comparison-- in Hyde Park,
we see that there is one large outpatient hospital
and that is actually the University of Chicago, Medical
Center.
And just for some more comparisons--
this is the neighborhood of Lincoln Park.
It is a well-resourced neighborhood
on the North Side of Chicago.
As we can see, there are two big hospitals nearby where people
can go seek medical care.
This is an example of how many South Side communities lack
extensive medical facilities that serve
a wide range of health issues.
Having to travel outside of your neighborhood
to get medical care can be really inconvenient,
especially if that care that you need is really urgent.
Now add gentrification into the mix.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
health disparities are exaggerated in gentrifying
communities.
That's because more health resources are introduced,
but more of the original community residents
are pushed out, which means that people in gentrifying
communities miss out on getting key health interventions
and resources that can improve their health over time.
But health isn't just affected by what hospitals
are in your neighborhood.
There are actually a couple other things that
affect your overall health--
vacation, economic stability, environment of a neighborhood,
and other social factors all affect what
a person's health looks like.
And when a neighborhood goes through a dramatic change--
like gentrification-- this can have huge effects
on all of these things, especially
these social interactions of the people
who are living in a particular community.
Or I guess, the social interactions
that they're not having.
Since gentrification displaces people,
a health risk that's commonly related to it is loneliness.
According to the World Health Organization,
loneliness can have a huge effect
on the mental health, especially mental health of older adults
and seniors.
Research shows that not having a support system
around can lower people's immune systems
and have negative physical and mental impacts.
For vulnerable populations, like minorities, loneliness
could make bad conditions that are already
being experienced even worse.
Think about this--
African-Americans are at a 77% higher risk of getting diabetes
than white Americans.
Black people are also three times more
likely to die from asthma as white people.
And death rates for cancer are much higher for black people
than for white people.
Having to go through these health issues alone
can only serve to disadvantage African-American people
in gentrifying communities.
As U Chicago students, faculty, staff, and Hyde Park
residents-- we can do something about the loneliness epidemic
that's being amplified by gentrification
in our own backyards.
Each of us has the power to make a meaningful human connection
with the local community members that still live here.
And with those who have had to move on,
whenever our paths cross.
Take a moment to smile.
And ask someone how their day was.
Share a conversation.
Make a new friend.
Together we'll tackle the deadliest side effect
of gentrification by making sure that no one is lonely
ever again.