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Now More Than Ever: Why Housing is Health Care

We’re Past the Talking Phase

We’ve been talking about the connection between housing and health for years. But lately, I’ve stopped framing it as a theoretical or future-facing conversation. We’re past that.

Now more than ever, health plans are facing runaway medical costs, provider shortages, and a rapidly aging population, all while navigating an affordability crisis that has made stable housing feel out of reach for millions.

This Is What Happens When Housing Comes First

Not long ago, our team worked with a mother who was living in her car with six children. Her story is unfortunately not unique but her outcome was. In partnership with a health plan, we were able to move her family into stable, long-term housing in under 70 days. The results were immediate and profound:

• Her children started attending school consistently.
  
• They began receiving regular, nutritious meals.
  
• Anxiety and depression, both for her and the kids, visibly eased.
  
• She began re-engaging with community support systems.
  

This isn’t anecdotal, it’s replicable and it’s fast. We see this pattern over and over again: Stability in housing leads to stability in health. When health plans work with us, they’re not just checking a box on social determinants they’re investing in real, near-term impact.

Why It’s Time to Stop Kicking the Can

Yes, housing has always mattered. But now, we’re at a tipping point. Three converging forces make this moment especially critical:

1. An aging population: Over 12,000 people are turning 65 every day, with complex care needs and limited housing options.
   
2. A clinical labor shortage: We simply don’t have enough doctors or nurses to treat everyone downstream.
   
3. A housing and affordability crisis: It’s harder than ever to secure and maintain stable housing, especially for vulnerable populations.
   

So what do we do when the care system is overloaded and the housing system is buckling? We go upstream. We shift our mindset from treatment to prevention. From crisis response to stability strategy and forward-thinking health plans are already doing exactly that.

The Plans That Get It Are Pulling Ahead

Some plans without making a public show of it are stepping up.

They’re:

• Embedding clinical housing interventions directly into population health strategies.
• Leveraging housing spend as a quality investment, counting it in the numerator of their Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) not just as an admin cost.
• Winning state Medicaid RFPs and outperforming peers in Medicare Advantage.
• Seeing tangible ROI in earnings, not just in mission metrics.

These aren’t vanity projects. They’re sustainable, bottom-line-positive programs. And they’re setting the bar for what leadership looks like in our industry.

What Happens If You Do Nothing?

In short? Insolvency. I know that sounds dramatic but I mean it.

Smaller plans that aren’t adapting are folding or being absorbed under less-than-ideal terms. Even the bigger players are feeling the strain of escalating costs, staffing limitations, and eroding member trust.

Waiting for federal programs to fix the housing crisis? That’s a gamble few can afford. The only real option is to take the reins now, to invest in the social drivers that will keep members healthy and plans solvent.

This Affects More Than Just Low-Income Members

Let me be clear: housing instability impacts more than just the lowest income brackets.

• It affects older adults with mobility issues or inaccessible homes.
  
• It touches retirees who need liquidity and are forced to sell the only asset they have their homes.
  
• It includes working-class families and essential employees living paycheck to paycheck.
  

Whether someone’s net worth is $2 million or $200, housing instability doesn’t discriminate. And neither should our response.

Plans Have a Real Shot to Lead Here

Health plans have an opportunity and an obligation to rethink their role in member well-being.

You can’t control the housing market, but you can control whether you see housing as part of your clinical strategy.

And when you do, the results speak for themselves:

• Lower utilization.
  
• Better member trust.
  
• Stronger clinical outcomes.
  
• Greater financial resilience.
  

You Know This Matters So Act Like It

I’ve said it before: we’re not a replacement for health plans. We’re an extension, a second tier to your care management team with the networks and capacity to act where others can’t.

If you’re a health plan leader who knows housing matters but hasn’t yet acted, now’s the moment. Not next year. Not when the next RFP comes around. Not when the data is even more dire. Now. More than ever.