June 07, 2019

10 ways cities are tackling the global affordable housing crisis→

June 07, 2019/ CACHE

“Affordability is not just about the ability to buy or rent a home, but also about being able to afford to live in it. This definition of affordability goes beyond meeting expenses related to operations and maintenance, taking into consideration transport, infrastructure and services. If a home is economical enough to buy and maintain but located too far from work or school, it cannot be said to be affordable.”

This article explores innovative ways cities are addressing housing affordability. From land acquisitions, repurposing vacant properties, and financing, many cities are taking innovative approaches to address the issue. Read the full article here.

August 25, 2018

Community Control of Land & Housing

August 25, 2018/ CACHE

Community Control of Land & Housing: Exploring strategies for combating displacement, expanding ownership, and building community wealth. This report from Democracy Collaborative is based on dozens of interviews with practitioners, academics, and community members, as well as a review of various reports, studies, and surveys. The report shares the resulting findings through key research insights, a review of best practices, and relevant examples. It seeks to broaden awareness, discourse, and adoption of community control of land and housing strategies among various stakeholders who have a genuine desire to see stable, healthy, equitable, and sustainable local communities flourish.

Read the full report here.

August 08, 2018

8 Policies that Have Contributed to Place Based Health Disparities Across Generations→

August 08, 2018/ CACHE

"Where you live plays a significant role in how healthy you are. But when it comes to promoting health, not all neighborhoods are created equal. And neighborhoods with the best access to health-promoting resources — like quality housing, good jobs, well-maintained parks, healthy food, and excellent schools — aren’t accessible to everyone.

Today, many of the differences between neighborhoods exist because of decades’ worth of interrelated policies that have cumulatively influenced where investment and opportunity have concentrated and who has access to them. The result is increasing health disparities and exacerbated inequities in communities across the country. Read on to learn more about 8 laws and policies that have created unhealthy places and about tools and resources that can help heal policy harms and create healthy neighborhoods for all..."

Erik Calloway & Chassidy Hanley | August 6, 2018

The read the 8 policies from ChangeLab Solutions, please click here.

August 06, 2018

Housing for health: Nationwide Children's Hospital presents a case study for treating a neighborhood as a patient

August 06, 2018/ CACHE

"Neighborhood effect syndrome, characterized by symptoms of extreme poverty including blight, housing insecurity, racial segregation, trauma, violence, poorly performing schools, low social cohesion and support and environmental toxins, has debilitating consequences on child health. Health care providers frequently encounter challenges to caring for children from affected neighborhoods, and these children often experience poorer outcomes compared to peers in unaffected neighborhoods. Historically, institutions have been largely ineffective in changing these outcomes with one-child-at-a-time tactics.

In a novel approach to improving outcomes for these children, Nationwide Children's leaders with community partners decided to address neighborhood effect syndrome as a target for pediatric health care - treating the neighborhood as a patient. In 2008, Nationwide Children's began collaborating with residents, government entities and social services agencies to develop the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families (HNHF) initiative..."

Read the full press release at EurekAlert and check out the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families resource on Nationwide Children's site.

July 02, 2018

The Health & Housing Starter Kit

July 02, 2018/ CACHE

A guide for public health departments, housing authorities, and hospitals working at the intersection of health and housing. How can we help decision makers and public agencies understand the connection between health and housing? What ways have hospitals used to get involved in housing? How can local institutions partner with each other to improve community health outcomes? What performance indicators can we use to measure success? ChangeLab Solutions developed The Health & Housing Starter Kit to explore these questions.

This excerpt is taken from ChangeLab Solutions.

June 29, 2018

Why Boston Medical Center is Investing in Housing

June 29, 2018/ CACHE

BMC’s housing investment is tied to a renovation of its campus in the South End. The state requires that 5 percent of the cost of a hospital expansion be reinvested in community health. BMC chose to spend the money on housing. The initiative also includes $1 million to help families fight evictions, $1 million to create a housing stabilization program for people with complex medical issues, and $1 million to support a grocery store at a development in Roxbury.

Simón Rios | June 27, 2018

This piece appears in the Common Health Newsletter of WBUR

Articles/Reports

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