The mantra “housing is health care” has been repeated by advocates for the homeless for decades. In recent years some have examined this concept from the other side, considering the potential for health-care systems to do more than treat and release the unhoused.
In 2017, a group of health systems formed the Healthcare Anchor Network, to harness their economic resources and community relationships to directly address social conditions that lead to poor health. The more than 65 organizations that have joined it to date employ over 2 million workers and have more than $150 billion in investment assets.
Two of the founding members of the network, Kaiser Permanente and CommonSpirit Health, are among the participants in a pilot project developed by the nonprofits Community Solutions and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The project is exploring how health-care systems can best help end chronic homelessness in their communities, with an intention to develop models than can be scaled nationally.
The mantra “housing is health care” has been repeated by advocates for the homeless for decades. In recent years some have examined this concept from the other side, considering the potential for health-care systems to do more than treat and release the unhoused.
In 2017, a group of health systems formed the Healthcare Anchor Network, to harness their economic resources and community relationships to directly address social conditions that lead to poor health. The more than 65 organizations that have joined it to date employ over 2 million workers and have more than $150 billion in investment assets.
Two of the founding members of the network, Kaiser Permanente and CommonSpirit Health, are among the participants in a pilot project developed by the nonprofits Community Solutions and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The project is exploring how health-care systems can best help end chronic homelessness in their communities, with an intention to develop models than can be scaled nationally.
