This report seeks to identify the forces that account for health disparities in the Houston region. It makes use of questions asked in the past 13 years of the annual “Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey” (KIHAS), buttressed by findings from the third of the institute’s three focused surveys, known as the SHEA studies (“Surveys of Health, Education, and the Arts”). Supported by a grant from Houston Endowment Inc., the studies were designed to assess the experiences, beliefs, and attitudes of Harris County residents with regard specifically to these important areas of urban life. The three separate surveys and the reports presenting their central findings complement the Kinder Institute’s continu­ing annual studies (the KIHAS), which have been tracking, through 33 years of systematic surveys (1982-2014), the demographic patterns, experienc­es, attitudes, and beliefs of Houston area residents during a period of remarkable change.