Social Determinants of Health

California lawmakers consider devoting an additional $90 million to subsidize rent for homeless patients.

Around the country, health care institutions have started to employ lawyers onsite to help patients fight landlords for better housing conditions or qualify for housing subsidies (plus a range of other legal supports that will generally have direct effect on their health).

A health center has partnered with a legal services agency to better help patients by addressing the social determinants of health. This “medical-legal partnership” is part of a growing trend that’s taking place across the nation.

At Hopeworks ‘N Camden, youth have often experienced a lifetime of traumatic events and toxic stress. Learning from the health world’s understanding of trauma can create better outcomes for service organizations—and better workplaces too.

The cost of lead and asbestos abatement totals in the thousands of dollars, and private homes aren’t usually included in asbestos regulation, so its removal becomes less of a priority for landlords, and is much less likely to happen at all.

About 80 percent of a person’s health status can be attributed to non-medical factors such as housing and income.

There have been many studies, reports, and articles throughout the years that highlight the correlation between a person’s housing and their health. (We even had an entire issue dedicated to this […]

Without steady employment, Olivia and her son found themselves without housing, without food, without healthcare, and without options. It was then that Olivia decided to visit Chicanos Por La Causa […]

The trauma caused by poverty and the systems that reinforce it can short-circuit standard efforts to build community. A new method called “trauma-informed community building” aims to change that.

A recent Rooflines post explored how not to connect community development and health, urging practitioners to not fall into the trap of “moralizing public health campaigns,” and instead focus on […]

A few months ago as I walked to a board meeting of my local CDFI, I passed a memorial to a young man who was shot and killed a couple […]

A recent article in The New York Times discussed an initiative to bring fresh, healthy food to a low-income Bronx neighborhood in New York’s least-healthy county. The expectation was that […]