The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a founding partner of the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign, published on January 17 two papers that explore the connections between housing and health. The first paper, “Medicaid Can Partner with Housing Providers and Others to Address Enrollees’ Social Needs,” discusses how housing providers utilize the Medicaid program to coordinate health care and social services and to pay for health-related services such as tenancy-related services, which support an individual to be a successful tenant, better able to sustain tenancy. The second paper, “Housing and Health Partners Can Work Together to Close the Housing Affordability Gap,” explores how housing and health partners can collaborate to close the housing affordability gap. In addition, a companion blog post in Health Affairs summarizes key points in the two papers along with some important recommendations. CBPP is a founding partner and Steering Committee member of the Opportunity Starts at Home multi-sector affordable homes campaign.
“Access to safe, affordable housing supports people’s physical and mental health, research shows,” writes Peggy Bailey, vice president for housing policy at CBPP. “The health care system has an important role in connecting patients to housing, but housing programs themselves need substantial additional resources to make a meaningful dent in the number of households that struggle to afford housing. Because health care stakeholders see face-to-face the difference affordable, quality, stable housing can make in health outcomes and have data that underscore the broader implications of a lack of affordable housing, they have an essential role to play in the housing policy debate.”
“Medicaid Can Partner with Housing Providers and Others to Address Enrollees’ Social Needs” is at: https://bit.ly/2uv5GLa
“Housing and Health Partners Can Work Together to Close the Housing Affordability Gap” is at: https://bit.ly/2tB3oKM