Advancing Health Equity Through Housing and Economic Stability

Stable, affordable housing is critical to health and well-being, especially for children. We are pleased to announce that the Kresge Foundation has awarded $400,000 in grant funding to our Chelsea based partnership—The Neighborhood Developers, Mass General Center for Community Health Improvement, GreenRoots, CONNECT, The Chelsea Collaborative and Metro Housing Boston—to advance health equity through housing in Chelsea. 

Selected from over 350 project proposals, this partnership is one of the 20 chosen nationwide to work on innovative community-generated, multi-sector solutions to improve health outcomes, housing affordability and quality. Over the course of 2 years, the partnership will take 150 patients affiliated with the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center who screen positively as housing insecure and refer them to CONNECT—a collaboration of 5 agencies working on housing and financial stability—for housing resources and training in job skills, budgeting, and credit building.

The partnership will build upon the success of our Health Starts at Home program, an initiative hosted by The Boston Foundation from 2016 through 2019, where notable improvements in health were reported by mothers and caretakers. After being enrolled one year in the program, moms reported significantly less depression and anxiety, both linked to better health outcomes for their children.

“Local communities identified housing stability and affordability as among the most important social influences on health through a recent community health needs assessment. We are very excited to continue our longstanding partnership with The Neighborhood Developers and others to connect MGH Chelsea patients with vital housing and economic stability services so that they might lead healthier lives. This is wonderful for the Chelsea community,” said Joan Quinlan, Mass General’s Vice President for Community Health.

Read the entire press release here:  http://theneighborhooddevelopers.org/news