AHA guide offers housing strategies to improve community health

A new resource from the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust and Association for Community Health Improvement highlights innovative strategies that hospitals and health systems are using to promote safe and stable housing for vulnerable populations. “The links between housing and health are clear: Individuals struggling with unsafe or unstable housing experience worse health outcomes and higher health care costs,” the guide notes. “Evidence is equally strong for the benefits of interventions to promote housing stability. Spending more time in more stable housing and eliminating housing-related stressors lead to improved health and fewer, shorter hospitalizations.” For more information and to register for a free Sept. 21 webinar on the guide, visit www.aha.org/housing. The resource is the second in an AHA series on how hospitals can address the social determinants of health. For more on addressing the health-related challenges of vulnerable communities, visit www.aha.org/EnsuringAccess.