The Housing Solutions Lab (Lab) is pleased to announce selections for the Catalyzing Housing and Health Collaborations in Small and Midsize Cities initiative. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the catalyst grants support cross-sector collaborations that address shared policy challenges at the intersection of housing and health. Selected from a competitive national pool of applicants, each team will receive $25,000 to implement projects over the next 12 months. The Lab will also provide technical and policy support to each team to disseminate project learnings and inform local policy and programs. The selected projects include:
Tacoma Healthy Housing Registry
Tacoma, WA
The Tacoma Pierce County Health Department and Tacoma Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium will establish a healthy housing registry based on a subset of the National Center for Healthy Housing’s Healthy Housing Standards. Building on Tacoma’s successful smoke-free housing registry model, the project will engage property owners, landlords, property managers, and tenants in identifying a set of healthy housing standards and establishing a public-facing registry of rental properties. The team will also conduct education and outreach activities to encourage adoption of the standards and examine opportunities to help advance proactive property maintenance rather than complaint-driven efforts.
Advancing Reentry Housing Opportunities for Justice-Involved Persons with Behavioral and Mental Health Challenges
Greensboro, NC
The University of North Carolina Greensboro Center for Housing and Community Studies and Guilford County Sheriff’s Office will collaborate to assess local housing and health needs for residents with behavioral and substance use conditions who are re-entering the community from incarceration. The project will engage housing providers, residents, and landlords to identify barriers to successful re-entry and resource gaps. The assessment will help the city to enhance coordination and referral services, strengthen community outreach, and target resources.
Addressing Housing Needs of High Utilizers of Health Services
Tulsa, OK
The Center for Housing Solutions and Morton Comprehensive Services will implement a data-sharing system to improve discharge planning and referrals for persons experiencing homelessness. The collaboration aims to identify high utilizers with housing needs, improve housing referrals, and strengthen tracking of patient outcomes over time. The project also seeks to gather data that can help shape the development of a new city-funded respite care program.
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