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Community, Health, and Family

Living Among Vacancy: Housing Abandonment, Distress, and Loneliness Across U.S. Communities Gregory Fulkerson*, Gregory Fulkerson, Alex Thomas,

Housing vacancy is often treated as a neutral indicator of market inefficiency or population decline, yet growing evidence suggests that vacancy is a structural condition with profound social and health consequences. This paper examines the relationship between structural housing vacancy rates and mental health outcomes, focusing on psychological distress and loneliness. Drawing on county-level data from the American Community Survey and Count Health Ranking  with nationally representative survey measures of mental health, we conceptualize vacancy not as individual housing turnover, but as a durable feature of place shaped by disinvestment, labor market restructuring, and regional inequality.

Using multivariate regression techniques, we assess whether higher levels of long-term vacancy are associated with elevated distress and loneliness, net of socioeconomic, demographic, and urban–rural characteristics. The results contribute to sociological and public health debates by reframing vacancy as a social determinant of mental health and highlighting the psychological consequences of uneven development and housing disinvestment. The paper concludes by discussing policy implications, including the limits of market-based housing solutions and the need for place-sensitive interventions that address both physical abandonment and social isolation.