Neighborhoods shaped by historic redlining may need far more than a new supermarket to improve residents’ access to healthy food, according to a study published in Obesity. Researchers found that high crime rates, poor housing conditions and inadequate schools were more strongly associated with limited healthy-food access than transportation barriers or community income alone. The findings suggest that food insecurity in these areas is not simply a retail problem. Instead, it reflects a wider network of social, economic and physical conditions that can determine whether residents can reliably obtain nutritious food.
The study, led by Sebastian Linde, a health policy researcher at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, examined why some neighborhoods offer abundant healthy-food choices while others contain mostly fast-food outlets or have few food retailers at all. The researchers focused on communities affected by historic redlining, a discriminatory lending system established in the 1930s that classified neighborhoods according to perceived financial risk and often denied mortgages, insurance and business investment to areas inhabited disproportionately by racial and ethnic minorities. Although redlining was outlawed in 1968, its geographic and economic effects remain visible in many American cities and suburbs.
Redlining maps did not merely record existing inequality; they helped institutionalize it. Neighborhoods marked as risky commonly received less public and private investment, contributing over time to housing deterioration, concentrated poverty, racial segregation and reduced commercial development. In many such communities, residents now encounter a striking imbalance in the local food environment: fast-food restaurants may be plentiful, while full-service grocery stores, farmers’ markets and other sources of fresh produce are scarce or absent. The new research examined whether that pattern could be explained primarily by income and transportation, or whether deeper neighborhood conditions played a larger role.
To investigate the question, the team combined four major sources of information covering nearly 9,600 neighborhoods in 38 states. General demographic and socioeconomic data came from the U.S. Census and related American Community Survey resources. The researchers overlaid those data with historical redlining maps, allowing them to identify areas whose development had been influenced by discriminatory lending classifications. They also used information comparing the number of grocery stores with the number of fast-food restaurants in each area. Finally, a specialized dataset was used to examine pathways linking historic differences in credit access with present-day health and neighborhood conditions.
The analysis assessed seven overlapping domains that can shape health: the built environment, criminal justice, education, housing, social cohesion, transportation, and wealth and income. These categories included characteristics such as the quality of buildings and public spaces, neighborhood safety, access to effective schools, housing affordability and stability, trust among residents, public-transit availability, poverty and financial security. By examining the domains together, rather than treating food access as an isolated retail measure, the researchers sought to identify structural factors that may influence whether healthy food becomes available and practically reachable.
Statistical modeling showed that historically redlined neighborhoods experienced substantially greater overall hardship than areas that had not received those classifications. The researchers characterized the redlined communities as being in decline, although their food environments varied considerably. Some had virtually no healthy-food options, others had a relatively strong supply, and many occupied an intermediate position. That variation was important because it showed that redlining alone did not determine the current food landscape. Instead, contemporary neighborhood conditions appeared to mediate how historical disadvantage translated into present-day access.
The strongest drivers identified in the study were high crime rates and substandard housing and schools. These factors may influence food access through several technical and economic pathways. Persistent crime can discourage grocery operators from investing in an area, increase insurance and security costs, and make residents less willing to travel on foot or use public transit to shop. Poor housing conditions can signal prolonged disinvestment, reduce household stability and consume income that might otherwise be spent on food. Under-resourced schools may reflect broader institutional disadvantage while limiting educational and economic opportunities that help households obtain and prepare healthier diets.
Transportation and income remain important, but the findings indicate that they do not tell the entire story. A household may technically have transportation yet still face unsafe streets, unreliable transit, long travel times or limited access to stores offering affordable, high-quality food. Similarly, a neighborhood’s average income may not reveal the financial pressures experienced by individual residents, including high rent, medical costs, unstable employment and limited access to credit. When inexpensive, highly processed food is readily available and healthier options require more time, money or travel, residents may be pushed toward diets associated with obesity and chronic disease. The researchers noted that adult obesity in the United States has risen from 30.5 percent to 41.9 percent over the past two decades, while severe obesity now affects roughly 22 million adults.
The study’s implications extend beyond the debate over “food deserts,” a term often used to describe places with limited access to grocery stores. Linde said that simply adding a supermarket may not resolve the underlying barriers if a neighborhood remains unsafe, poorly housed, socially fragmented or underserved by schools and public services. More effective interventions could combine food-retail investments with housing rehabilitation, improvements in public safety, educational support, better transportation and programs that strengthen relationships among residents. Community gardens were cited as one possible way to build social cohesion while increasing local food production, although such projects would not replace the need for broader structural investment.
The researchers emphasized that their results demonstrate relationships rather than cause and effect. Because the study analyzed existing neighborhood data, it cannot establish that historic redlining directly caused current food-access patterns or that changing one factor would necessarily improve diets. The analysis also focused on cities and suburbs where redlining occurred and did not capture every dimension of food access, including the affordability, nutritional quality or freshness of available products. Even with those limitations, the findings support a shift in public-health strategy: improving food security may require coordinated policies across housing, urban planning, education, public safety and community development. The authors argue that neighborhood-level data, combined with meaningful participation by residents, could help communities design solutions that address the conditions sustaining food insecurity rather than treating its most visible symptom.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Structural Drivers of Neighborhood Food Access: Implications for Policy Change
News Publication Date: 16-Apr-2026
Web References: https://public-health.tamu.edu/directory/sebastian-linde.html; https://public-health.tamu.edu/index.html; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/redlining.asp; https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs.html; https://cpcrs.upenn.edu/resource/mapping-inequality-redlining-new-deal-america; https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/61367; https://www.sreindex.com/; https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult-obesity-facts/index.html
References: Linde S. et al., “Structural Drivers of Neighborhood Food Access: Implications for Policy Change,” Obesity. DOI: 10.1002/oby.70205
Keywords: Food security, public health, redlining, neighborhood inequality, healthy food access, obesity, housing, crime, education, urban planning, social determinants of health
