The full acute effects of COVID-19 in the United States are becoming increasingly apparent. The disease's impact on our healthcare system and economy has been overwhelming. The profound economic consequences that have emerged in the wake of this crisis will be much longer lived, especially for children, the age group most susceptible to economic downturns.
This pandemic threatens to undermine the healthcare-affordable housing partnerships that have made significant gains on increasing the wellbeing of families and young children over the past decade. That disruption could lead to a dramatic rise in negative health outcomes for children across the nation.
In our latest paper, we discuss the economic effects of the pandemic, the disruptions it will cause for healthcare organizations and resulting implications for their housing investments, how these disruptions will affect children, and the local opportunities and challenges this sequence of events may generate for affordable housing partnerships. It was co-written by Kelly J. Kelleher, MD, MPH, the Vice President for Community Health at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; Robin Hacke, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Community Investment; and Rebecca Steinitz, Director of Content and Communication of the Center for Community Investment.
Download the Brief
COVID-19 and Community Development: Considerations for Affordable Housing and Healthcare Partnership
Further Reading
- Learn more about Healthy Homes, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital affordable housing partnership featured in this brief, at healthyhomesco.org.
- Explore A Community Development Program and Reduction in High-Cost Health Care Use, a new case study that examines the impact of Nationwide Children's Hospital's Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families community development initiative on the South Side of Columbus, Ohio. The findings suggest that community development activities may influence children's healthcare use and health outcomes. Kelly J. Kelleher, MD, MPH, is one of the coauthors of the study, which was recently published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- Explore Upstream All The Way: Why Pioneering Health Institutions Are Investing Upstream to Improve Community Health, an issue brief that highlights some of the lessons CCI has learned about the motivations driving health institutions to invest in the social determinants of health in their communities.
- Learn more about CCI's Accelerating Investments for Healthy Communities initiative at centerforcommunityinvestment.org/aihc.
