Housing, particularly its quality, availability and affordability was one of the major election issues, Prof Howden-Chapman said.
It has a major influence on our health and "is the key to our wellbeing".
The Wellington University of Otago professor of public health, director of He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme and director of the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, has been invited by the Wanaka branch of the Royal Society to give her talk "Home Truths".
"We have a problem of cold houses throughout New Zealand and so what is true of the rest of the country is also true of Wanaka," Prof Howden-Chapman said.
To be healthy in your home it has to be well insulated, well ventilated and have a good heater (not an unflued gas heater) that is energy-effective, she said.
Chairman of the World Health Organisation (WHO) housing and health guideline development group, Prof Howden-Chapman said the group would soon announce new guidelines recommending the temperature of a house be no lower than 18degC.
"You start to get compounding health effects the lower the temperature is, and when it is particularly cold outside it is important that the inside is warm," she said.
Prof Howden-Chapman has spent many years conducting randomised control trials into aspects of housing and health but her first job was as a secondary school teacher, teaching English, social studies and sex education. She has also worked as a clinical psychologist and taught anger management and sex therapy, "which have all been used in my life".
Prof Howden-Chapman said she first became interested in housing after working in a drug and alcohol unit.
"I became increasingly interested in the inequalities that faced people and the choices they had in life and then I focused in on housing because everybody needs a house."
"It was, in a sense, an apolitical topic that I felt I could have some influence on."
She said working on housing had "many, many co-benefits".
"We found a house that was insulated and effectively kept people warm inside was also very environmentally efficient."
Having an energy-efficient house was not only good for health but also good for reducing carbon emissions and "that’s a real winner".
She said there was a broad range of benefits from improving housing but there was a long way to go in New Zealand.
She said many parts of the housing market needed regulating, "particularly the rental market where we were completely unregulated".
Prof Howden-Chapman was recently awarded $845,000 to study eviction and its consequences.
"Seventy percent of children from families in poverty live in private rental houses ... and the average tenancy in New Zealand is 11 months, so if you are constantly moving around, those children have to be pretty extraordinary to do well at school. We are trying to think about having longer tenancies and how to protect the rights of all people involved," she said.
Prof Howden-Chapman will speak at 6pm at the Presbyterian Community Centre, 92 Tenby St.
