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Housing Is Working Group 2024-2025 Calendar

Join the Housing Is Working Group to discuss special topics related to cross-sector initiatives and programmatic considerations particularly focused on the intersections of housing, health, and education.

This year’s public webinars cover topics such as child welfare and housing, leveraging Medicaid resources for housing services, out-of-school time, and digital equity in a post-ACP world. 

View Calendar
 

Elements of a Successful Partnership

With generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, CLPHA developed an in-depth report on regional housing-education collaborations taking place at housing authorities across the Pacific-Northwest.

Read the Multimedia Report
 
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News Article
Community:
Mar 20, 2019
Low-income immigrant mothers are skipping the chance to get nutritious foods and help for their infants from a federal program because they fear deportation, or the loss of their children, according to the agencies that distribute those benefits.

Authored by: Alfred Lubrano for The Inquirer
Topics: Child welfare, Early childhood, Food insecurity, Health, Legislation & Policy, Nutrition
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019

More moms and kids withdrawing from nutrition program because of deportation fears, administrators say

News Article
Mar 20, 2019
Alfred Lubrano for The Inquirer
Low-income immigrant mothers are skipping the chance to get nutritious foods and help for their infants from a federal program because they fear deportation, or the loss of their children, according to the agencies that distribute those benefits.
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News Article
Community:
Mar 18, 2019
Now colleges and universities themselves are pulling together more permanent solutions, often in collaboration with local housing authorities and non-profit partners. In some cases, colleges and universities are trying to avoid losing enrollment; not surprisingly, students in unstable living environments or who can't afford food have poorer physical health, symptoms of depression and psychological stress, and are more likely to drop out, research shows.

Authored by: Charlotte West for Pacific Standard
Topics: CLPHA, Homelessness, Housing, Low-income, Partnerships, Post-secondary, West Coast
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 21, 2019
Reauthorization of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 has been stalled since 2015. Even though the Senate Agriculture Committee and the House Education and the Workforce Committee reported their respective bills, the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016 (S. 3136) and the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 (H.R. 5003), neither was acted upon by the full House and Senate. Instead, these programs were extended as part of the FY2016 omnibus appropriations law.

Authored by: Marshall Matz and Roger Szemraj for AgriPulse
Topics: Child welfare, Food insecurity, Funding, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Nutrition
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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Policy Brief
Community:
Oct 1, 2016
Emerging health care financing models require much more sophisticated actuarial calculations than previous payment arrangements, often taking into account risk factors such as homelessness. Homelessness also has direct implications for clinical treatment decisions and integrated care models and should be noted in individual patient records. This policy brief provides a rationale for using the ICD-10-CM code for homelessness, outlines the challenges to maximizing this code, and offers strategies to consider to ensure health care providers ask about homelessness and record patients’ housing status. This data is highly relevant to clinicians and administrators at health centers, hospitals, state Medicaid systems, Medicaid managed care organizations, and public health departments.

Authored by: National Health Care for the Homeless Council
Topics: Health, Homelessness, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income, Medicaid / Medicare
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 25, 2019
In California, where home prices are pushing people farther from their jobs, rising traffic is creating more pollution.

Authored by: Scott Wiener and Daniel Kammen
Topics: Green, Housing, Sustainability, Transportation, West Coast
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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Publication
Community:
Mar 1, 2019
Released bi-monthly, each issue of the ZERO TO THREE Journal focuses on a critical topic within the early childhood development field. Journal articles are carefully composed to present current knowledge, latest research, and practical advice to help early childhood professionals do their best work in support of infants and toddlers.

Authored by: Zero To Three
Topics: Child welfare, Dual-generation, Early childhood, Homelessness, Housing, Low-income, Research, Safety
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 18, 2019
The Department of Education reports more than 29,000 kids in North Carolina were considered homeless in the 2016-2017 school year. About three-quarters of those are living with other families because it’s too expensive to live on their own. According to Shantiqua Neely, it’s not necessarily because people don’t have jobs. She’s the executive director at A Child’s Place, the organization helps homeless CMS students and families. She said it’s because rent is too expensive.

Authored by: Alex Olgin for WFAE 90.7
Topics: Child welfare, Education, Homelessness, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 18, 2019
Taller buildings in the hearts of more than two dozen neighborhoods, denser housing on some nearby blocks and requirements that developers help create affordable housing. That’s what Seattle is getting after the City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve some of the most sweeping zoning changes in the city’s recent history.

Authored by: Daniel Beekman for The Seattle Times
Topics: Community development, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Low-income
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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Research
Community:
Mar 20, 2019
Launched in 2016, the Denver Supportive Housing SIB aims to support residents struggling with homelessness, substance use, and mental health problems by increasing the number of people getting and staying housed and reducing the number of days they spend in jail. The permanent supportive housing model combines a permanent housing subsidy with wraparound services, such as mental health counseling, to help people improve their stability. In Denver, MHCD and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) were selected to offer these services as part of the SIB.

Authored by: The Urban Institute
Topics: Cost effectiveness, Criminal justice, Homelessness, Housing, Low-income, Pacific Northwest, Partnerships, Research, Substance abuse
Shared by Mica O'Brien on Mar 26, 2019
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Research
Community:
Jan 1, 2019
Homelessness during pregnancy poses significant health risks for mothers and infants. As health care providers increase their emphasis on social determinants of health, it is important to understand how unstable housing contributes to complications during pregnancy. We linked data about emergency shelter enrollees with Massachusetts Medicaid claims for the period January 1, 2008–June 30, 2015 to compare health care use and pregnancy complications for 9,124 women who used emergency shelter with those for 8,757 similar women who did not. Rates of mental illness and substance use disorders were significantly higher among homeless women. Adjusted odds of having nine pregnancy complications were also significantly higher for homeless women and remained substantially unchanged after we adjusted for behavioral health disorders.

Authored by: Robin Clark, Linda Weinreb, Julie Flahive, and Robert Seifert for Health Affairs
Topics: Child welfare, Depression, Early childhood, Homelessness, Housing, Low-income, Mental health, Pre-natal, Research, Substance abuse
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 26, 2019

Homelessness Contributes To Pregnancy Complications

Research
Jan 1, 2019
Robin Clark, Linda Weinreb, Julie Flahive, and Robert Seifert for Health Affairs
Homelessness during pregnancy poses significant health risks for mothers and infants. As health care providers increase their emphasis on social determinants of health, it is important to understand how unstable housing contributes to complications during pregnancy.
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Publication
Community:
Mar 20, 2019
To equip municipalities with the skills and tools to address these challenges, New York State created the $12 million Cities for Responsible Investment and Strategic Enforcement (Cities RISE) program, which provides leadership, management, and technical support to help 16 municipalities address deteriorating homes, vacant properties, and neighborhood decline through strategic code enforcement. Cities RISE uses code enforcement strategies to advance broader community development goals, and, in doing so, helps municipalities align programs aimed at improving residents’ quality of life.

Authored by: Aaron Shroyer How Housing Matters (The Urban Institute)
Topics: Community development, Data sharing, Homelessness, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Partnerships
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 26, 2019

How Strategic Code Enforcement is Improving the Quality of Life for Niagara Falls Residents

Publication
Mar 20, 2019
Aaron Shroyer How Housing Matters (The Urban Institute)
To equip municipalities with the skills and tools to address these challenges, New York State created the $12 million Cities for Responsible Investment and Strategic Enforcement (Cities RISE) program, which provides leadership, management, and technical support to help 16 municipalities address dete
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Interactive
Community:
Mar 20, 2019
As the population ages, one of the greatest challenges facing state officials is how to organize and pay for long-term services and supports (LTSS) for low-income elderly and disabled adults—the most complex, expensive, and fastest-growing group covered by Medicaid. To help address this challenge, a toolkit for state leaders published in 2017 has been updated.

Authored by: Manatt Health Strategies and PhD Center for Health Care Strategies
Topics: Disabilities, Health, Low-income, Medicaid / Medicare, Partnerships, Seniors
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 26, 2019

Strengthening Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports in an Evolving Policy Environment: A Toolkit for States

Interactive
Mar 20, 2019
Manatt Health Strategies and PhD Center for Health Care Strategies
As the population ages, one of the greatest challenges facing state officials is how to organize and pay for long-term services and supports (LTSS) for low-income elderly and disabled adults—the most complex, expensive, and fastest-growing group covered by Medicaid.
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News Article
Community:
Mar 22, 2019
HOME, CDBG, Housing Trust Fund, and other key housing programs are proposed to be cut.

Authored by: Donna Kimura for Affordable Housing Finance
Topics: Funding, Homelessness, Housing, Legislation & Policy
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 26, 2019
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Report
Community:
Mar 25, 2019
Use of the $35 billion in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for the 2017 hurricanes has been slow. Over a year after the first funds were appropriated, much of the money remains unspent because grantees in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still in planning phases. Also, the Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn't have the review guidance and monitoring plans it needs for good grantee oversight. We recommended ways to improve the oversight of disaster funding and better meet disaster recovery needs.

Authored by: U.S. Government Accountability Office
Topics: Community development, Funding, Housing, Legislation & Policy, Research, Safety, U.S. Territories
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 26, 2019

Disaster Recovery: Better Monitoring of Block Grant Funds Is Needed

Report
Mar 25, 2019
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Use of the $35 billion in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for the 2017 hurricanes has been slow. Over a year after the first funds were appropriated, much of the money remains unspent because grantees in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S.
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Publication
Community:
Feb 26, 2019
With different drivers but a shared set of goals, public health, health care, social services, and other sectors can come together to work upstream and develop creative solutions to solve the complex problems facing communities today. To that end, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson, the Public Health National Center for Innovations and the Center for Sharing Public Health Services partnered to launch the Cross-sector Innovation Initiative (CSII). The goal of the CSII is to support, promote and disseminate learning about the role of governmental public health departments in aligning efforts across the health care, public health and social services sectors to improve population health.

Authored by: Jessica Solomon Fisher for JPHMP Direct
Topics: Data sharing, Health, Partnerships, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019

PHNCI Partners with Center for Sharing Public Health Services to Launch the Cross-Sector Innovation Initiative

Publication
Feb 26, 2019
Jessica Solomon Fisher for JPHMP Direct
With different drivers but a shared set of goals, public health, health care, social services, and other sectors can come together to work upstream and develop creative solutions to solve the complex problems facing communities today.
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Publication
Community:
The Home Preservation Initiative (HPI) for Healthy Living seeks to improve asthma outcomes related to unhealthy housing in five neighborhoods in West Philadelphia. By combining home repairs and community health worker home visits, HPI aims to significantly reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations due to pediatric asthma. For these primarily African-American communities, substandard housing, unemployment, low wages and a lack of education are barriers to the overall health and well-being of residents. Using outcome data, the collaboration will show health care cost savings, aiming to make a strong case for Medicaid reimbursement for home repairs.

Authored by: The BUILD Health Challenge
Topics: Asthma, Cost effectiveness, Data sharing, East Coast, Health, Low-income, Medicaid / Medicare, Partnerships, Racial inequalities, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019
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Interactive
Community:
After working with 37 communities across the country over the last three years to drive sustainable improvements in community health we’ve we’ve seen how when specific approaches are implemented, namely Bold, Upstream, Integrated, Local, and Data-Driven approaches, meaningful change affecting the health of a community can happen. We’ve done our best to document the processes, the successes, and the failures along the way, and from those real-world experiences we’ve created a set of preliminary tools that can inform and guide those interested in learning about the unique BUILD approach.

Authored by: All In: Data for Community Health
Topics: Community development, Data sharing, Health, Partnerships
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019
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Podcast
Community:
This episode features two guests from the University of Chicago—Dr. Julia Koschinsky, the Executive Director for the Center for Spatial Data Science, and Dr. Nicole Marwell, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration. They are leading a project, funded by the Public Health National Center for Innovations (PHNCI), which is analyzing data on geographic access to health and human services to help government officials address gaps and maximize the impact of existing resources. The project will offer a replicable framework and tool for analyzing and improving distributions of public funds for health and human services.

Authored by: All In: Data for Community Health
Topics: Data sharing, Health, Midwest, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019

Analyzing Health and Human Services Data to Maximize the Impact of Public Funds in Chicago, IL

Podcast
All In: Data for Community Health
This episode features two guests from the University of Chicago—Dr. Julia Koschinsky, the Executive Director for the Center for Spatial Data Science, and Dr. Nicole Marwell, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration.
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Podcast
Community:
Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of community development, social capital, and health and well-being. Ron Dwyer-Voss, MA, the Owner of Pacific Community Solutions, who also happens to be a long-time friend of podcast host Peter Eckart, joined the show to discuss how ABCD draws on existing strengths of local residents, associations, and institutions to build stronger, healthier, and more sustainable communities. He shared strategies, tools, and examples of how ABCD can be used to engage community residents and support them in understanding and applying their power to improve their neighborhoods.

Authored by: All In: Data for Community Health
Topics: Asset building, Community development, Health, Partnerships
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 19, 2019
More than 20,000 African American residents were displaced from low-income neighborhoods from 2000 to 2013, researchers say.

Authored by: Katherine Shaver for The Washington Post
Topics: East Coast, Housing, Low-income, Racial inequalities
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019
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News Article
Community:
Mar 13, 2019
Universal meals allow schools to build the program into their overall curriculum, "creating a learning lab for healthy eating and a mealtime experience where every kid is equal and enjoys their meals together," according to Hunger Free Vermont, which says nearly a quarter of schools in the state offer them and studies show that the programs "increase participation, leading to better student health and learning, and a strong school meals business. When participation is up, school meal programs have more resources to invest in even higher quality food, including many local foods."

Authored by: Chris Mays for Brattleboro Reformer
Topics: Child welfare, Education, Food insecurity, Funding, Health, Nutrition
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 19, 2019

A push for universal meals

News Article
Mar 13, 2019
Chris Mays for Brattleboro Reformer
Universal meals allow schools to build the program into their overall curriculum, "creating a learning lab for healthy eating and a mealtime experience where every kid is equal and enjoys their meals together," according to Hunger Free Vermont, which says nearly a quarter of schools in the
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News Article
Community:
Feb 18, 2019
For Yonkers families, the search for affordable housing is long and weary.

Authored by: E. Tammy Kim for The New Republic
Topics: Housing, Racial inequalities
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 18, 2019
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Research
Community:
Feb 1, 2019
As of 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pays for chronic care management (CCM) services for Medicare beneficiaries with two or more chronic conditions. CMS requires eligible providers to first obtain patients’ verbal (and, prior to 2017, written) consent, to ensure that patients who participate in CCM services understand their rights and agree to any applicable cost sharing. CCM providers must also enhance patients’ access to continuous and coordinated care, including ongoing care management.

Authored by: Mathematica Policy Research
Topics: Health, Low-income, Medicaid / Medicare, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 18, 2019
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Publication
Community:
Jan 30, 2019
Understanding health disparity causes is an important first step toward developing policies or interventions to eliminate disparities, but their nature makes identifying and addressing their causes challenging.

Authored by: Mathematica Policy Research
Topics: Health, Racial inequalities, Research
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 18, 2019
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Research
Community:
Jan 31, 2019
Because mental health conditions can negatively affect employment, people with these conditions make up a large share of federal disability program participants. Federal agencies have tested supported employment (SE) interventions designed to help those with mental health conditions keep or obtain employment and reduce their dependence on public programs. This brief describes the characteristics of adults with mental health conditions who participate in the federal disability programs and reports evidence from three recent studies of longer-term impacts of SE on the employment of people with mental health conditions. The findings indicate that, although a large share of disability program participants with mental health conditions report that they want to work, many face barriers, including being discouraged by failed past work attempts.

Authored by: Mathematica Policy Research
Topics: Asset building, Disabilities, Mental health, Research, Workforce development
Shared by Housing Is on Mar 18, 2019