The new report “HUD-HHS Partnerships: A Prescription for Better Health” recently released by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington D.C. https://bipartisanpolicy.org offers recommendations on how HUD and HHS https://www.hhs.gov can collaborate across programs to tackle the health and housing needs in the U.S.
Recommendations include:
- Expanding efforts to collect, match, and share data, specifically connecting local housing and homelessness information with state Medicaid data.
- Having HUD and HHS develop an interagency national data-matching initiative to improve their efforts to connect at risk populations with available resources
- Integrating housing and behavioral health resources to provide a better platform for treatment and long term recovery
- Creating more healthy homes to reduce lead poisoning and asthma triggers utilizing a more targeted approach
- Improving the coordination of disaster-related housing and health services so communities can better assist residents after a natural disaster
- Aligning existing supportive services and home modification programs to support healthy aging especially for senior living with multiple chronic conditions
BPC’s recommendations were developed from interviews with dozens of housing and health experts, with HUD and HHS staff, and a bipartisan advisory group of former HUD and HHS leaders including:
- Jennifer Ho, Former Senior Advisor at HUD and Former Deputy Director for the U.S Interagency Council on Homelessness
- Michael Liu, Former Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing at HUD
- Donald Moulds, Former Acting Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at HHS
- Vince Ventimiglia, Former Assistant Secretary for Legislation at HUD
Go to https://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/hud-hhs-partnerships-a-prescription-for-better-health to view the report.