Housing Intervention to Improve Health Outcomes for People with HIV/AIDS
Partnership is creating a replicable program model that can be used across the country
“Housing is a powerful structural intervention in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and this funding will provide grantees and their partners the opportunity to make a real impact in their communities.” Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, United States Secretary of Urban and Housing Development
In March, Debra Bartelli, DrPH, Research Associate Professor at the UofM School of Public Health, was awarded a $171,670 subcontract as part of a 3-year, $2,134,046 grant award from HUD/HOPWA to Hope House Day Care Center, a local non-profit that provides supportive social services to individuals and families affected by HIV and poverty in order to improve the quality of their lives. Hope House has 15 years of experience providing housing assistance and supportive services to individuals living with HIV in the Memphis area and was one of 20 local government and non-profit organizations across the country to receive an award.
The Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program was enacted in 1992 to provide states and local entities with resources to develop long-term comprehensive strategies for meeting the housing needs of low-income persons with HIV/AIDS and their families. The lack of stable, safe, and affordable housing has long been an issue affecting many people living with HIV. and often leads to discontinuity in healthcare access and achievement or maintenance of viral suppression (when the amount of HIV virus in the bloodstream is so low it cannot be detected or transmitted to others).
The objective of this collaboration with Hope House is to reduce the spread of HIV through the provision of housing assistance and wrap-around social services to low-income individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. Through this project Hope House will partner with the University of Memphis School of Public Health to create a replicable program model that can be used by other organizations across the country.
The School of Public Health’s role is to provide evaluation and data analysis expertise to help Hope House develop a replicable program model that can be used by other organizations across the country to keep patients in stable housing and remove barriers to successful management of HIV disease. These barriers include lack of employment, low educational attainment, lack of access to childcare, and low social support. Dr. Bartelli, along with her Graduate Assistant, Leonard Rule, are hoping to identify both client characteristics and program services that contribute to successful client outcomes.
At the time of the award, HUD stated that “the projects awarded…show exemplary and innovative qualities, including community-level coordination, data collection with emphasis on stable housing and positive health outcomes, culturally competent approaches to providing housing and services, and a systemic approach to advance equity in underserved communities that can serve as a national place-based model.”
For more information, contact Bartelli at dbrtelli@memphis.edu.