The Opportunity Starts at Home multisector affordable housing campaign released its seventh podcast episode on October 10 highlighting the intersections between affordable housing and mental health. The episode features Andrew Sperling, director of legislative and policy advocacy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI is the nation’s leading voice on mental health. Mr. Sperling discusses the history of housing and mental illness, the current housing barriers facing those with mental health conditions, the necessity of stable housing for recovery, NAMI's commitment to housing affordability, and why NAMI joined the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign Steering Committee.
“Without access to decent, safe, affordable housing, all the aspirations we have for recovery and integration in the community just collapse,” explains Mr. Sperling. “For the population I represent, no social determinant of health drives more bad health outcomes than unstable housing.”
In the podcast episode, Mr. Sperling cites a recently released report by the Technical Assistance Collaborative in partnership with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force, “Priced Out: The Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities.” Nearly 2 million people with serious mental illness receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a federal program that provides financial assistance to low income people with long-term disabilities, including mental illness. But for those who rely solely on SSI as their main source of income, finding a safe, decent, affordable home is virtually impossible without additional rental assistance. In 2016, the national average rent for a studio apartment was $752 per month and the national average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $861 per month, but the average monthly SSI payment was only $744.
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