Saint Agnes Healthcare joined Baltimore City Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young in announcing the creation of a new collaboration between the City and local hospitals designed to end homelessness for vulnerable individuals and families. Through the initiative, approximately 200 homeless households will receive permanent housing and wrap-around support services.
“Baltimore is committed to ending homelessness and not just managing it,” said Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young. “And the best way to end homelessness is through access to affordable housing. As our administration identifies more housing opportunities for our most vulnerable individuals and families, we are thankful to our hospital partners for investing in the essential services necessary to truly end homelessness.”
“Housing ends homelessness,” said Terry Hickey, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Human Services. “Permanent supportive housing is a best practice for effectively serving the most vulnerable members of our community. The critical investment by these ten hospitals will leverage additional federal resources for the supportive services we know are critical to successful housing placement.”
The ten area hospitals in the collaboration have committed $2,000,000 over two years to support the City’s new Supportive Housing Investment Fund. Under a partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services and Healthcare for the Homeless, eligible Medicaid participants will receive both permanent housing and the intensive supportive services they need to prevent a return to homelessness.
The initiative supports Saint Agnes’ ongoing work to meet its community’s needs, particularly those that extend beyond the traditional definitions of health care. In 2016, Saint Agnes was proud to open the Bon Secours Gibbons Apartments—the first phase of our efforts to provide the community with a safe and healthy place to live, work, play and learn at Gibbons Commons. Additional services target other social determinant factors like food insecurity, behavioral health and substance abuse, transportation and more.
The Supportive Housing Investment Fund program aims to demonstrate that supportive services provided in permanent housing will improve the health of individuals and families experiencing homelessness and ultimately lower their health care costs. Preliminary data from similar supportive housing efforts in Baltimore and around the country demonstrate that ending the homelessness of high-cost Medicaid enrollees improves health and reduces emergency room use, hospitalizations, and overall health care spending.
Other participating hospitals include The Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Maryland Medical Center – Downtown, Sinai Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, University of Maryland Medical Center – Midtown, and MedStar Harbor Hospital.
Preliminary data from similar supportive housing efforts in Baltimore and around the country demonstrate that ending the homelessness of high-cost Medicaid enrollees improves health and reduces emergency room use, hospitalizations, and overall health care spending.
