Everyone deserves access to a quality home that supports health, wellness, and economic opportunity. The COVID-19 pandemic and current civil rights movement dramatically highlighted both the vital importance of every person having a stable, affordable home, and the deep inequities and broad impacts of systemic racism in the U.S that make that home far more difficult to attain for black, indigenous, and people of color. Disparities in housing can cause and be affected by barriers to essential services and resources that support well-being, a sense of agency, and economic mobility.
SAHF’s Resident Health and Outcomes Initiative aims to support greater equity and improved outcomes by:
- Going upstream to address root causes or social determinants of health, by increasing the supply of affordable homes and identifying what is needed for a more equitable and healthier environment that improves outcomes.
- Establishing a framework for a shared understanding and practice of quality, resident-centered and data-driven services, coordinated through housing, known as resident services.?
- Measuring and evaluating the impact of resident engagement, programs, and services through an established common list of key outcomes measures.
Through a common outcomes collection effort that was launched in 2012, SAHF continues to demonstrate the impact of service-enriched housing (also referred to as housing with resident services).
Resident Services Explained
Resident Services is a term used to describe programs, services, and referrals that are provided in a housing context.
Resident Services are typically provided by dedicated services staff and through robust partnerships developed to support greater stability and well-being for residents.
Programs and services vary to meet the priorities of each community and can include eviction prevention initiatives, tutoring or afterschool programs, food access support, health and wellness programming and navigation, digital adoption training, financial stability and asset building programs, such as the Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program, and initiatives to address isolation and loneliness.
The Impact of Home
Our 2020 Report, “The Impact of Home: Building to Opportunity, Health & Equity,” highlights the results of five years of data collection and the impact that SAHF members are having on resident lives.