Essay Sample on Healthcare & Housing: Uncovering External Factors Affecting Quality

Introduction

Healthcare is a complex and contemporary system that is defined and affected by a variety of factors. While many factors affect it from within, including human resource, leadership, availability of resources, and technology, there also exist external factors. Housing is one of the external factors that affect the quality, access, and equality of healthcare. Housing, in this case, is considered in terms of the accessibility and affordability of a housing unit as well as the surrounding environment within which a housing unit dwells in. In the United States, affordable housing means that an individual or a household spends less than 30% of their income on housing (Braveman, Dekker, Egerter, Sadegh-Nobari & Pollack, 2011). The affordability of a housing unit is comorbid with its accessibility and these two factors dictate several healthcare factors. The affordability and hence access to a housing unit affects the physical conditions of the housing unit, which in turn affects the mental and physical health of the inhabitant. The neighborhood within which a housing unit dwells dictates the types of outdoor activities individuals can engage, security and thus physical wellbeing, and the accessibility of social amenities such as hospitals and gyms. The pricing of a housing unit similarly affects the ability of individuals to afford healthcare. The state of California experiences a challenge in housing, and thus is susceptible to the healthcare repercussion of this. It is therefore critical to assess the state of California housing cost and crisis, and thus examine the healthcare impacts of this trend.

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California's Housing Crisis

The economic abilities of individuals dramatically affect their ability and willingness to acquire housing. Poverty is therefore highly linked with the ability of individuals to afford and thus purchase housing units. While California might be depicted as a state with one of the most affluent individuals, it similarly experiences poverty. The state of California experiences a 22% rate of poverty; this extrapolating to 1 in every 4 children experiencing poverty (California Housing Partnership Corporation, 2015). Approximately eight million individuals within the state live in extreme or very poor conditions, and this significantly limits their purchasing power when it comes to housing. While affordability is often considered as a relative factor, it is the pricing of the housing units that determines how relative this is. Housing units are usually priced relative to the purchasing power of the consumers. The state of California, under the same ideology, often has housing units for the extremely low-income (ELI) and the very low-income (VLI) individuals. However, a shortage of these units compounds to the issue of affordability. Of the 2.2 million ELI and VLI California residents, only 664,000 of these housing units are available, leaving more than 1.54 million residents at a deficit of these units at any given time (California Housing Partnership Corporation, 2015). Therefore, even while holding all other factors constant, the cost of housing significantly impacts the issue of the accessibility of housing.

Housing costs significantly impact on the economic stability and purchasing power of individuals. Many individuals in the United States often spend more than half of their income on their housing, leaving only the other half of their income to cater for all their essential needs such as food, transportation, and healthcare. This creates a need for them to forego some requirements, and thus prioritizing needs like food, clothing, and transportation. Healthcare insurance might, therefore, be viewed as less urgent as compared to the other needs and thus be foregone. High costs of housing affect vulnerable individuals such as the disabled and the elderly and senior people who are on a fixed income (California Housing Partnership Corporation, 2015). This situation affects their independence and causes high costs to the public from the resulting healthcare needs of these individuals, such as placing them in homes.

House Pricing, Homelessness, and Impacts on Health

Assessing the situation in the state of California, at any given moment, more than one and a half million people are often exposed to being homeless. According to the 2018 annual homeless report assessment, in the United States, in one single night, 553,742 people are rendered homeless. The pricing of the housing units significantly caused this trend. Of the 553,742 people, 65% of them, which is about 360,897 individuals had a job (13%) and had at least a high school diploma (28%). This is to demonstrate that employment and education attainments do not factor in with the same intensity that the cost of housing does. The cost of housing directly correlates to the rate of homelessness. An increase in rent by $100 has the efficacy to increase the rate of homelessness by 6-32% (Why is homelessness increasing, 2017). Homelessness is a health risk as it exposes the victims to physical, mental, and sexual health risks. Prenatally homeless children that are the children whose mothers were homeless while pregnant of them, were 20% more likely to be hospitalized, while those who are post-natally homeless were 22% more likely to be hospitalized in comparison to children who were never homeless (Sandel, Cook, Poblacion & Sheward, 2016). Homelessness is the skeleton that many other health risks attached to among them food shortages, susceptibility to infectious diseases, physical and sexual assault, among other risk factors. Mortality rates are higher in the homeless as they are four times more likely to die as compared to the housing-secure individuals (Kottke, Abariotes, & Spoonheim, 2018). Homelessness also affects their adherence to treatment and medication.

Housing Environment and Health

The cost of housing also affects the physical environment of the home, and consequently, the quality of health for the residents. High costs of housing often result in the stratification of housing units, with the affluent landing on good quality houses while the low-income have to struggle for houses within their reach. High housing costs can thus result in residential crowding, poor and substandard quality of the houses, lead poisoning, and poor quality air. The surrounding environment similarly impacts on healthcare. Neighborhood characteristics can either promote or demote healthcare. Good neighborhoods create a safe environment, with ample space for physical exercise, accessibility to healthcare facilities, and general security (Braveman et al., 2011). Congestion is a problem that is closely related to the issue of housing and thus affects healthcare. Congested neighborhoods limit the space for children and adults to carry their healthy exercise, as well as poses a threat to the spread of infectious diseases. Pollution and garbage management also affect congested areas and thus result in poor air quality, water pollution, and poor management of sewers.

Affordable housing is a critical factor in healthcare as it benefits individuals, employees, and families. Stable housing possesses the efficacy to reduce hospitalization and emergency department visits more so to homeless patients running away from violence and discrimination based on sexual identity. It also facilitates the management of chronic diseases (Kottke, Abariotes, & Spoonheim, 2018). They similarly stabilize neighborhoods that are nearby healthcare organization, thus increase access to the healthcare centers and facilitate frequent visits to the hospitals.

The United States government, through the housing and urban development (HUD), has been at the forefront to address the issue of housing costs and crisis. Budgetary allocations to this crisis have often been primarily aimed at addressing the crisis by supplying affordable units and rental subsidies (Kottke, Abariotes, & Spoonheim, 2018). However, this has significantly reduced the financial support towards housing production to salvage the situation permanently. Health plans such as Medicaid have also been devised to provide the low-income earners integrated social and medical services, and thus help them manage the remaining funds after paying for housing. Healthcare personnel has also helped by recognizing and identifying patients who are homeless or experience housing insecurity and after that refer them to resources established to support them. They can also collaborate with the government and other organization to advocate for the ending of homelessness and create housing security.

Conclusion

Healthcare is complex and is determined by factors within and outside the organizational environment. Housing affordability is among these factors, as it directly affects the economic abilities of people and thus affects their purchasing power. With high housing costs, many individuals are often rendered homeless, and this, in turn, exposes them to health risks. Poor housing is also linked to the costs of housing, and thus determines the external surrounding and living conditions of the individuals. Affordable housing is related to improved healthcare by reducing the number of hospital visits and the management of chronic medical disorders. A variety of government initiatives have been formulated to address the issue of the housing crisis. However, more can be done to ensure that all the three involved parties that is the government, healthcare systems, and the low-income earners to work hand in hand to find a solution.

References

Braveman P., Dekker M., Egerter S., Sadegh-Nobari T. & Pollack C (2011). How Does Housing Affect Health? Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2011/05/housing-and-health.html

California housing partnership corporation (2015). The Critical Role of Housing Access and Affordability in Reducing Poverty. Pp. 1-6. Retrieved from https://1p08d91kd0c03rlxhmhtydpr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1-2015StatewideHousingNeedReportFINAL.pdf

Henry M., Mahathey A., Morrill T., Robinson A., Shivji A., & Watt R. (2018). The 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Pp. 1-80. https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2018-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

Kottke, T., Abariotes, A., & Spoonheim, J. B. (2018). Access to Affordable Housing Promotes Health and Well-Being and Reduces Hospital Visits. The Permanente journal, 22, 17-079. doi:10.7812/TPP/17-079

Sandel M., Cook J., Poblacion A. P. & Sheward R. (2016). Housing as a Health Care Investment Affordable Housing Supports Children's Health. Insights of Housing Policy Research. Pp. 1-4. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1774.808

Why is homelessness increasing? (2017). Department of commerce. http://www.commerce.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/hau-why-homelessness-increase-2017.pdf