Health stability, even for those experiencing homelessness with the highest health needs, is achievable with a better coordinated and flexible response.
New Yorkers with complex health and social needs who are experiencing homelessness need an accelerated path to permanent, supportive housing. They also need the right range of health supports to remain stable. Together with Convergent Impact, we created the Collaborative on Housing for Health to convene government leaders and key providers of housing and health services. This collaborative will centralize efforts to increase access to needed services for this patient population.
The collaborative includes leaders from the Center for Urban Community Services, the Institute for Community Living, Janian Medical Care, the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, Urban Pathways, and the New York City Department of Social Services.
For New Yorkers with complex health and social needs who are experiencing homelessness, finding housing is a long and complicated process.
While waiting for permanent, supportive housing, this patient population often deals with major health problems. In Manhattan, 42 percent of homeless adults have serious medical issues such as heart disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease, and peripheral vascular disease. 21 percent of the national homeless population experience severe mental illness and 16 percent have substance use disorders; that percentage is likely much higher in urban areas like New York. The medical needs of NYC’s homeless population are likely to grow; co-morbidities are common and the population is aging.
This issue is solvable, but requires all aspects of New York’s social and health service sectors to be aligned.
Permanent, supportive housing with the right health supports gets people back on their feet. Yet the process is difficult and lengthy, especially for people experiencing homelessness with health needs. The Collaborative on Housing for Health aims to change this.
We know from experience that collaboratives work. The Food Assistance Collaborative, our first collaborative, was aimed at serving more people through New York City’s highly decentralized pantry system. Many neighborhoods were underserved and the system suffered from significant redundancies. A lack of structure or incentives to coordinate meant many of the pantries in high-need areas were left behind.
Convening the Food Assistance Collaborative allowed those actors to work together to close gaps. Our $17 million investment resulted in approximately $136 million worth of food distributed over ten years, enough to feed 300,000 New Yorkers annually.
We also convened the Collaborative for Homeless Healthcare to improve the health and housing stability of New Yorkers by ensuring they receive dignified, integrated, high-quality, person-centered care. This convening launched projects like the nurse triage line in shelters to reduce 911 calls, the first-ever fellowship in homeless primary care, record-sharing across fragmented networks of public and private homeless providers, and pilots of new care models in shelters.
As part of our effort to stabilize health for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness with some of the highest health needs, we began convening in July 2024. Our first step was to identify the systemwide barriers that prevent people with complex health and social needs from getting the housing placements and ongoing services that they need.
Moving forward, we aim to:
Molly Wasow Park, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services. She oversees the Human Resources Administration that manages the supportive housing placement process and the Department of Homeless Services that supports shelter and outreach programs around the city.
Frederick Shack, CEO of Urban Pathways. A seasoned housing leader, Mr. Shack has dedicated his career to launching innovative housing models and services to help single adults experiencing homelessness.
Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, CEO of The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. Dr. Brenner is a primary care physician and has spent his career innovating health care delivery models to meet the medical and service needs of the most vulnerable citizens.
Jody Rudin, President and CEO of the Institute for Community Living. Ms. Rudin has two decades of experience working in the social services sector across nonprofits and in government.
Van Yu, Chief Medical officer from the Center for Urban Community Services and Janian Medical Care. Yu is a psychiatrist with 20-plus years serving individuals in New York City with high acuity health needs.
Kinsey Dinan, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Research and Policy Innovation in the NYC Department of Social Services. Deputy Commissioner Dinan oversees research projects across the housing and homelessness space, including how to bring more health services across the housing continuum.
