An Unconditional Cash Transfer Program for Low-Income New Yorkers Affected by COVID-19.

Early in the pandemic, New York City's public hospital system partnered with multiple philanthropic foundations to offer an unconditional cash transfer program for low-income New Yorkers affected by COVID-19. The $1000 cash transfers were designed to help people meet their most immediate health and social needs and were incorporated into healthcare delivery and contact tracing workflows as a response to the public health emergency. To better understand program recipients' experiences, researchers conducted 150 telephone surveys with randomly sampled cash transfer recipients and 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with purposefully sampled survey participants. Survey participants were predominantly Latinx (87%) and women (65%). The most common reported uses of the $1000 were food and rent. Most participants (79%) reported that without the $1000 cash transfer they would have had difficulty paying for basic expenses or making ends meet, with specific positive effects reported related to food, housing, and ability to work. The majority of survey participants reported that receiving the cash assistance somewhat or greatly improved their physical health (83%) and mental health (89%). Qualitative interview results generally supported the survey findings.

The Development Of Health And Housing Consortia In New York City.

Health and housing consortia in New York City offer a model for bridging the divide between the health care and housing sectors. While staff in these sectors often recognize the need to better integrate their services, there are few models for doing so. In this article we describe the formation of a health and housing consortium in the Bronx, New York City, as well as the successful replication of its model in Brooklyn. While each consortium has some features specific to its service area, the primary goal of both is the same: to provide a neutral space for health care and housing organizations to collaborate in what is otherwise often competitive and fragmented territory. In addition, the work of both consortia coalesces around training and resource development, cross-sector communication, and research and advocacy. We provide examples of the Bronx Consortium's activities in each of these core areas, highlight tangible results to date, and offer recommendations for people interested in undertaking similar efforts.

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.