Want to tackle gun violence? Think about trees.

I was born and raised in the Liberty City section of Miami, a crime-infested section of the city. My neighborhood had no tree coverage and was a mass of cracked concrete. There were no parks, swimming pools, or libraries.

Now I live in Philadelphia, a city with 116 homicides this year as I write this. Our mayoral candidates have proposed to declare a state of emergency, reimagine coordination between government agencies, funnel millions of dollars to gun violence suppression police units, crack down on low-level crimes, or install surveillance cameras in the neighborhoods experiencing the deepest state of crisis.

None of these policies inspires confidence.

We cannot tinker with bureaucracy and call it progress. We must transform the underlying systems that create the conditions where gun violence takes hold.

Philadelphia’s gun violence is concentrated in Black neighborhoods that have experienced generations of systemic divestment. Historically, these communities were redlined and solely built for workers; they were never designed to be humane, family neighborhoods. These communities have endured decades of living conditions that include deteriorating housing often plagued with mold, vermin, leaks, poor ventilation, and structural deficiencies.

Research by Eugenia C. South, John MacDonald, and Vincent Reina from the University of Pennsylvania shows that fixing up dilapidated homes in low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods is a powerfully effective way to prevent shootings. Installing new windows reduced shootings by 13%. More holistic home investment — including repairs to home electrical systems and installing proper home heating and cooling, plumbing, and roofing — led to a 21.9% drop in total crime, including homicides. The more homes that were repaired, the safer the neighborhood became.

The more homes that were repaired, the safer the neighborhood became.

Neighborhoods with deteriorating housing are further burdened with other environmental injustices, such as trash dumping, lack of green space, and poor air quality. These concrete, boarded-up streetscapes lack places for neighbors to meet and relax, and prevent people from forging connections with one another. Research has shown that gun violence spikes on the hottest days. Stuffy, poorly ventilated homes force people onto baking concrete with few trees to provide shade, absorb heat, or clean the air.

The inequitable distribution of tree canopy in Philadelphia is well-documented and impacts the neighborhood beyond how green it looks. Like home repairs, a healthy tree canopy is associated with a reduction in gun violence. The same research team at Penn found that trash cleanup and turning vacant lots into community gardens also reduced gun violence. Direct investment in homes shows care for people who have been systematically shut out. Introducing well-maintained community spaces, tree cover, and nature into paved-over communities offers softness, hope, and connection.

» READ MORE: Renovating abandoned houses reduces the rate of gun violence, Penn study finds

It is not a coincidence that the neighborhoods with the least tree canopy are also the neighborhoods with the highest rates of childhood asthma, which align with the zip codes that experience the highest levels of gun violence in Philadelphia.

Comfortable and habitable homes, clean air, access to nature, and safe community spaces are basic, universal human needs. The lack of attention to this comparatively low-cost solution by our mayoral candidates is mind-boggling, especially given that Philadelphia is home to some of the nation’s most forward-thinking researchers, faith leaders, housing justice and green space organizers, and gun violence interrupters.

People and organizations like Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild (POWER) Interfaith, the 57 Blocks Project, the Green Living Plan Coalition, Charles Ellison, Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, and the ongoing research conducted by South are showing us the way out of this crisis. When will these solutions be taken seriously by our political leadership?

We should not have to prove with peer-reviewed research that making homes habitable or creating green space is good for people’s health and a valid use of public funds. We should not have to connect the dots between nearly identical maps for three interconnected epidemics that all hurt Philadelphia’s Black communities first and worst.

But here we are, more than three months and over 100 deaths into 2023, and months away from electing a new mayor. I wonder which candidate, if any, will have the courage to listen to the people who have been doing this work for years — and prioritize environmental justice as a strategy to combat gun violence.

Pamela Darville is a civil rights lawyer. She is a volunteer with POWER Interfaith’s climate justice and jobs team and lives in Philadelphia.