Community Health Worker Intervention in Subsidized Housing: New York City, 2016–2017

From April 2016 to June 2017, the Health + Housing Project employed four community health workers who engaged residents of two subsidized housing buildings in New York City to address individuals’ broadly defined health needs, including social and economic risk factors. Following the intervention, we observed significant improvements in residents’ food security, ability to pay rent, and connection to primary care. No immediate change was seen in acute health care use or more narrowly defined health outcomes.

Written with Amy L Freeman, Tianying Li, Sue A Kaplan, Marc N Gourevitch, Ashley Young, and Kelly M Doran. 

From April 2016 to June 2017, the Health + Housing Project employed four community health workers who engaged residents of two subsidized housing buildings in New York City to address individuals’ broadly defined health needs, including social and economic risk factors. Following the intervention, we observed significant improvements in residents’ food security, ability to pay rent, and connection to primary care. No immediate change was seen in acute health care use or more narrowly defined health outcomes.

There has been significant attention to the effect of community health worker (CHW) interventions on chronic disease management and access to care. Less attention has been paid to the potential for CHWs to address patients’ more broadly defined health. Place-based CHW interventions may provide an effective means of reaching vulnerable populations with a range of health, social, and economic needs.

The Health + Housing Project, a CHW intervention located in subsidized housing in New York City, aimed to address residents’ self-identified health-related needs, including social and economic risk factors.1 Intervention design and process outcomes (e.g., average number of CHW contacts) have been previously described.