Category Archives: Affordable Housing

Health Systems partnering with affordable housing developers

Posted on by • Posted in Adverse Health Outcomes, Affordable Housing, Community Benefit, Complex Care, Complex Care Coordination, Health System, Hospital, Social Determinants of Health • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/ea16393ac3c3/gist-weekly-march-22-2024?e=d1e747d2d8

Published last week in the New York Times, this piece highlights a growing trend in health system community benefit provision: partnering with developers to build affordable housing.

These partnerships have focused on a range of housing needs, from transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness, to housing for people who need special care, to affordable housing for hospital employees. Many of these projects also include co-located medical clinics to make it easier for residents to access healthcare services, and some are even being planned on health system-owned property. 

The Gist: Housing security has long been a significant social determinant of health, something that most providers recognize every day, given that a record number of Americans are currently experiencing homelessness. 

Among families with complex medical needs, stable housing was demonstrated to reduce adverse health outcomes in children by 20 percent. In addition to health systems, managed care organizations are also investing in different kinds of housing solutions, and at least 19 states are directing Medicaid dollars toward housing assistance.

Examining the economic pressures facing healthcare workers

Posted on by • Posted in Affordability, Affordable Housing, Economic Stimulus, Employee Raise, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Labor Spend Management, Labor Union, Quality of Life, Social Determinants of Health, Wage Increase • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/94c7c9eca73b/the-weekly-gist-april-16-2021?e=d1e747d2d8

As health systems look to address the “social determinants of health”, one obvious but often overlooked place to start is with their own employees. The left side of the graphic below shows forecasted employment growth and salaries across a range of healthcare occupations. Many of the fastest-growing healthcare jobs—including home health and personal aides, medical assistants, and phlebotomists—are among the lowest-paid.

Case in point: home health and personal care aides are among the top 20 fastest-growing occupations in the US, and median wage for these jobs is only about $12 per hour, or around 200 percent of the federal poverty level—well below the living wage in many parts of the nation. (Note that this analysis does not include support staff who are not healthcare specific, like custodial or dietary workers, so the number of low-wage workers at health systems is likely higher.)
 
Among of the many struggles lower-income healthcare employees face is finding affordable housing. Using fair market rent data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the right side of the graphic shows that healthcare support workers, even at the 90th percentile salary level, struggle to afford rent in the majority of the 50 largest US metros areas. In particular, home health aides in the top decile of earners can only afford rent in 14 percent of major cities.

These disparities have caught the attention of lawmakers. The $400B in President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan devoted to home healthcare for seniors includes tactics to increase the wages and quality of life for these caregivers. But as we await policy solutions, health systems should pay careful attention to issues of housing insecurity and other structural challenges facing their workers and look to increase wages and provide targeted support to these critical team members.