In its continuing effort to address housing security as a healthcare issue, Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanante is pledging $3 million to address chronic homelessness across 15 communities in the managed care organization’s geographic footprint.
The funding will be allocated over a three-year period to New York-based Community Solutions‘ Built for Zero Initiative, a national effort by the nonprofit to support data gathering on homelessness for local leaders and spread technology-enabled solutions to end homelessness.
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Since the program’s launch in 2015, Built for Zero said it has helped house more than 102,000 people across its 70 target markets, sustainably ended chronic homelessness in three communities and veteran homelessness in nine.
Kaiser’s collaboration with the organization will be directed at seven communities in California as well as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Montgomery County in Maryland, Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Virginia, Denver, Atlanta and Honolulu.
“Addressing affordable housing and homelessness is crucial to Kaiser Permanente’s mission to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve, and to advance the economic, social and environmental conditions for health,” Kaiser Chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson said in a statement.
The link between housing insecurity and health has long been established. Studies have shown that access to stable housing lowers hospital stays by 29 percent and emergency department visits by 24 percent. Additionally, being chronically homeless lowers life expectancy by nearly 20 years.
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Kaiser Permanente has been a leader among healthcare organizations in trying to address larger community health goals. Last year, the company announced it was pledging $200 million to its Thriving Communities Fund, which would be dedicated towards fighting homelessness and supporting affordable housing.
That money went to housing 500 homeless Oakland seniors and, purchasing a 41-unit affordable housing project in East Oakland and starting a $100 million loan fund dedicated toward the preservation of affordable housing.
The new partnership with Community Solutions – which was announced at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin – represents an expansion of these efforts to end homelessness.
“Living without a home can have a dramatic impact on a person’s health, yet many of the communities we serve are grappling with extreme rates of housing insecurity and homelessness,” Kaiser Chief Community Health Officer Bechara Choucair said in a statement.
“We know there is no simple solution to such a complex problem, but through strategic partnerships, such as the one with Community Solutions, we believe it can be solved.”
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