A new study by Children’s HealthWatch has found 67 percent of low-income families interviewed at Hennepin County Medical Center during a six-year period lacked housing security.

The families had moved two or more times in the previous year, lived in crowded conditions or were behind on rent in the last year. In Minneapolis, a typical two-bedroom apartment rents for $900 a month — more than $500 more than what a full-time minimum wage worker earns in a month, according to statistics cited by HealthWatch.

Dr. Diana Cutts, assistant chief of pediatrics at HCMC, is the principal investigator for Children’s HealthWatch in Minneapolis. The survey was given to 6,000 low-income caregivers of children under 4 who were treated at HCMC between 2005 and 2011.

“From a medical perspective, we know that stable housing is a key factor in the health and development of children — even for the very youngest child,” Dr, Cutts said in a statement. “Yet so many children who come through our doors do not have a secure home. Policy solutions should consider housing subsidies as an effective prescription to protect children’s health and brain development.”

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