The National Low Income Housing Coalition released a report this month titled GAP: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. The extensive report, though specifically focused on housing, also discusses the sacrifices people make due to the high cost of housing. This includes a tradeoff between housing, medications and food and nutrition: “To make ends meet, severely cost-burdened renters make significant sacrifices on other basic necessities. Severely cost-burdened renters in the lowest quartile of expenditures spend 41% less on food and health care than similar households who are not cost burdened (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2016).”

As a medically tailored home-delivered meal provider, housing is in our purpose. Having a stable home is key to recovery and receiving and properly using our medically tailored nutrition. That is why we partner locally with over 200 community-based agencies to refer clients to the services they need and make sure we have a functioning safety net for the most vulnerable in our community. Nationally, our Director of Policy & Planning, Alissa Wassung, co-chairs the Structural Interventions Working Group of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership, which is designed to educate and advocate on the deep impact that lack of access to Food and Nutrition, Housing and Employment has on people who are severely ill. We believe that through the provision of our program and our energy at the national level that we will make progress on supporting these key programs.