The Link Between Affordable Housing And Healthcare

Laurel Blatchford

Columbia, MD—In this technology-driven age, where one is now able to access a medical diagnosis through an app and monitor their workouts through a wristwatch, options for affordable housing are dwindling while rates of homelessness rise. According to a national survey on the link between homes and health from Enterprise Community Partners Inc., more than half of renters surveyed have delayed care because they couldn’t afford it and 100% of medical professionals surveyed have had some of their patients express concerns about affordable housing.

The survey, the first to examine renters’ ability to afford health care and medical professionals’ perception of those challenges, reveals renters who are paying a high percentage of their income for housing are regularly making difficult tradeoffs between rent and health care.