Housing as Healthcare Joshua D. Bamberger, MD, MPH SF Dept. of Public Health & Mercy Housing University of California, San Francisco
Poverty—combined with mental illness, substance abuse or a chronic medical condition—is lethal
People in these conditions die 25 years younger than general public These premature deaths, often from common diseases like cardiovascular disease or diabetes, are preventable Medical treatment is necessary but insufficient alone to improve outcomes
A.G.
What does medical success look like? Avastin: huge financial success, modestly increased survival rates by 15%
Medical success: housing homeless Housing homeless with AIDS increased survival rates by about 80%
DAH Portfolio
Quality is impacted by five key indicators:
1.Quality of building/architecture 2.Quality of neighborhood 3.Severity of illness among tenants 4.Homogeneity of the population 5.Quality of the on-site services
Building Neighbor- hood (1-3) Housing quality (1-3) Severity of tenant illness (3- 1) Quality of on-site service (1- 4) Mixed populatio n (1-2) Total (5- 15) Mission Creek Kelly Cullen Comm Measuring Quality in Affordable Housing “Magic Number > 9” 1 Point Bonus for Strong Community 1 Point Bonus for a Work Program
Relationship between Housing Quality and Mortality
Death rate: Le Nain vs. Mission Creek
Cost
“It costs less to house homeless people than to leave them on the streets and in shelters.” —Shaun Donovan U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development The Daily Show, March 5, 2012
Chez Soi/At Home Study
3000 adults with mental illness and chronic medical problems Randomly assigned to housing vs. regular care For the top 10% of the healthcare users, $10 returned for every $1 in housing For next 40%, $1 returned for every $1 in housing For bottom 50%, housing did not significantly reduce healthcare utilization
Saved $19,000 per person
Saved $23,000 per person
Saved $29,000 per person
A.G. is recovering now
So what now?
Next steps
Future Opportunities for Healthcare in Supportive Housing New York State Investing savings in healthcare into supportive housing $600 million in
Future Opportunities for Healthcare in Supportive Housing San Mateo Managed care- HPSM Committed to 120 units of housing
Future Opportunities for Healthcare in Supportive Housing LA County DAH on steroids Increase in targeting Increase in scale Diversity of housing stock
Tasks for Affordable Housing Sector Reach out to the providers of healthcare services Diversify the capital cost Diversify the operating costs Replicate to scale
Future
Housing as Healthcare Joshua D. Bamberger, MD, MPH SF Dept. of Public Health & Mercy Housing University of California, San Francisco