Montefiore’s Housing at Risk Program celebrated 15 years of assisting those in need at the Moses Campus on Wednesday, Aug. 14.
The program works to establish new ways to secure and preserve safe, affordable housing and prevent evictions. It also helps coordinate care and empowers people to get back on their feet.
The celebration included a panel on navigating the housing landscape in New York City and its impact on health, as well as a housing fair that featured representatives from local supportive housing resources for Bronx community members.
Since it was founded in 2009, the Housing at Risk Program has delivered highly coordinated health and housing support for those who arrive at Montefiore’s Bronx hospitals with or at risk of unstable housing. This program has helped to decrease emergency department visits among people unstably housed by 45%, assisted more than 1,000 people, including securing permanent housing for 65 individuals, more than a dozen of whom are high need utilizers of Medicaid and prevented nearly 40 evictions, while also decreasing hospital inpatient visits by 60% among people who are unstably housed.
“We’re fortunate to be in a state that invests in housing and financial assistance, but navigating services is complicated and getting resources takes time,” said Deirdre Sekulic, LCSW, associate director, Social Work, Montefiore Heath System. “For example, disability can take more than a year to come through and it could take several weeks for someone who is medically complex to get into a shelter. This is where the skills we’ve learned and partnerships we’ve established make an impact. When people come to Montefiore, they know they’ll have advocates focused on long-term illness prevention and health promotion, rather than short-sighted treatments. This is the future of healthcare.”
