Improving Health Outcomes by Investing in Affordable Housing

In April of this year, Humana announced a $40 million commitment to create affordable housing in 16 states. Why? Because housing quality directly impacts a person’s health. With the need for health insurance companies to find ways to improve health outcomes while reducing costs, investing in Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) – like quality affordable housing – is becoming a priority. Health insurance companies nationwide are working on similar initiatives and partnering with established nonprofit organizations in their communities to get the job done.

New Nonprofit Location Data

With new nonprofit location data from Candid now available in PolicyMap, finding local nonprofits with whom to partner in neighborhoods across the country has never been easier. 

Candid, formed in 2019 when the Foundation Center and GuideStar merged, collects and maintains data on nonprofits and funders throughout the country and internationally. Candid gathers data from IRS forms and enriches it with information from additional sources, and combines it with their own research to provide a rich depository of information on where nonprofits are located, the type of work they undertake, and their finances, where available. Candid data is now available for all PolicyMap subscribers.

Partnering With Nonprofits To Relieve Cost-Burdened Homeowners

In Florida, for example, 26.89% of renters and 11.16% of homeowners are severely cost-burdened according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census. These households spend over 50% of their monthly income to pay for their housing – a financial stress that has been linked to a myriad of mental and physical health conditions such as anxiety, high blood pressure, and diabetes. 

With PolicyMap, health insurers can drill down to find the neighborhoods where the highest concentrations of these households live – AND identify the housing-related nonprofits in that area that may be good partners in alleviating these health conditions through affordable housing investments.

In a number of areas southeast of Clearwater, Florida (shown as dark purple on the maps), for example, more than 30% of renters are severely cost-burdened. Identifying large nonprofit organizations focused on housing in these areas, like Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas or Bright Community Trust, Inc. instantly provides health insurers with a range of nonprofits to consider for possible partnerships. 

PolicyMap also curates geographic SDOH data related to demographics, healthy food access, health conditions, health facilities, environmental health, access to care, community assets, and more from over 150 different sources. This in-depth neighborhood-level data can help health insurance companies consider places where other types of interventions, from food security to childcare access to mental health treatment opportunities.