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The last month or two has been a unique time in modern world history, and its full impact is yet to be felt – especially in our cities. When the virus is brought somewhat under control (full control may take years) there will be a need to rethink many aspects of our physical, economic and social life. Improving the health of our communities has been a major goal of planning since the early days of the profession 100 years ago, but that now takes on a whole new dimension.

Planning for healthy communities is a multidimensional effort. There are many aspects of the health care system itself that employ planners to help manage their facilities and community-based programs. But most planning work until recently has not directly considered how to make communities healthier places in which to live. In 2017 the American Planning Association published its , which provides planners and their communities with a comprehensive look at what needs to be included in their plans, projects and programs to achieve much better health outcomes for everyone.

Now comes a health threat that will require local governments to increase their ability to take care of far greater housing, social service, transportation and economic challenges than they have faced to date. There is much work that will need to be done to plan for and carry out projects and programs to address the needs of our most vulnerable residents, and the federal government is the only entity that can provide the needed resources to fund those programs.

The planners’ job will be to help make sure these new resources are put to good use, and that the programs they fund are carried out in an orderly and effective way.