With $3M investment, Boston hospitals treat housing instability as a health issue
Originally published on Boston Business Journal.
Three Boston hospitals are working to address housing instability, investing a combined $3 million to keep people from being evicted and plan future affordable housing projects.
Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital announced the Innovative Stable Housing Initiative, a three-year program intended to fund creative solutions to housing instability in Greater Boston.
The partnership is unique in that the issue of housing is being addresses as a health issue, and also because the three health systems are pooling resources to reduce administrative redundancies and streamline how funding is made available.
“What we’re understanding more and more is we should provide the best medical care possible, but if you’re homeless or housing unstable, your health will be undermined,” said Dr. Megan Sandel, associate director of the GROW clinic at Boston Medical Center. “While we make that connection, we also think health systems in cross sector partnerships — working with government and other institutions — are what will be needed to address the housing crisis.”