Kaiser Invests $3 Million to End Homelessness in Sacramento, 14 Other Communities

Kaiser Permanente announced Monday that it will invest $3 million over the next three years in an effort to end chronic homelessness in the Sacramento region and 14 other communities around the United States.

“Kaiser Permanente is investing in efforts to reduce homelessness and housing insecurity because there is a proven link between housing and health,” said Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. “Addressing affordable housing and homelessness is crucial to Kaiser Permanente’s mission to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve, and to advance the economic, social and environmental conditions for health.”

As part of the effort, Kaiser will be working with New York-based Community Solutions to apply problem-solving tools that the organization said has ended chronic homelessness in Bergen County, N.J.; Lancaster, Pa.; and Rockford, Ill. It also said that nine U.S. locales, including Riverside, Calif., and Abilene, Texas, have ended homelessness among veterans.

Rosanne Haggerty, president and co-founder of Community Solutions, said: “Together, we will use data and analytics to help these communities adopt the tools they need to end homelessness and address the conditions that create it.”

Haggerty worked in the field of affordable housing for 20 years, according to the nonprofit’s website, but she left to found this organization in 2011 because homelessness and poverty were expanding faster than she could turn out new homes. In the first four years of her organization’s existence, the company said, the leadership team helped 25 times as many people as they did in their combined 20 years of prior work.

People experiencing homelessness usually end up seeking care in emergency rooms, often because the lack of safe, stable housing makes it difficult for them to store medication and recover from illness. Statistics also show that people experiencing chronic homelessness are three to four times more likely to die than the general population.

In California, Kaiser and Community Solutions are working with the city and county of Sacramento; Bakersfield and Kern County; Fresno and Madera counties; Marin County; Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Santa Cruz County; and Riverside County. In other parts of the nation, they will team up in Baltimore, Md.; Montgomery County, Md.; Arlington County, Va.; Fairfax County, Va.; Denver, Colo.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Honolulu.

The health care giant and Community Solutions announced their partnership at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Conference in Austin, Texas. Last year, Kaiser created a $200 million impact investment fund known as the Thriving Communities Fund aimed at addressing homelessness, affordable housing and other issues related to the housing crisis.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article227446499.html