Housing has been identified as a key building block to health and healthy communities, with access to safe, stable, and affordable housing listed as one of the social determinants of health by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People experiencing homelessness have more challenges to accessing health care, and therefore face higher rates of poor health outcomes than people with housing. A 2021 study  found that people experiencing homelessness have higher rates of chronic health conditions, behavioral health disorders, communicable diseases and infections, and history of head injuries compared to the general population. Since many conditions are best managed with regular medication and treatments, stable housing is perhaps the most important factor in improving health conditions. Community leaders in Brown County identified that a significant investment in improving access to housing is a critical community initiative, resulting in the development of the Greater Green Bay Blueprint to Prevent and End Homelessness.

The Blueprint highlights the following: "Homelessness is a complex issue with many variables impacting the rise and fall of trendlines. One of the biggest being the most obvious – lack of affordable housing - that is also accessible to those that may have lower credit scores and/or prior justice involvement. What also cannot be denied, is the long-term historical impact of race on social structures, policies and systems and the trauma associated with the impact of racism on the disproportionality of people of color experiencing homelessness in the Green Bay Region and across the nation. The COVID-19 global pandemic in many ways has shown a bright light on the racial disparities in health, housing, education, justice, access to services, access to savings, and access to vaccines while it also had a large impact in increasing the numbers of individual and families falling into homelessness across the nation."  It goes on to say "The pandemic provided a multitude of challenges, the main one being the loss of many jobs in the health care, hospitality, restaurant, and retail industries. The pandemic increased attention and concern for these individuals living on the edge along with those individuals who had already fallen into homelessness prior to the pandemic. It also illuminated the need to create targeted solutions to ensure people experiencing housing instability and homelessness receive the services and housing they need to remain or become stably housed, and to work on systems change efforts that increase access for those populations who have been historically disenfranchised from access to housing, services, and generational wealth building opportunities."

The Blueprint, created with input from experts in the community and people with lived experience of homelessness, provides strategies and tasks that must be implemented to help prevent and end homelessness in Brown County. Beyond Health has aligned efforts with the Blueprint Director and the various community partners and coalitions who are committed to the work of addressing this basic need in Brown County, highlighting successes along the way, and focusing on housing and health for all in the community.

For additional information or to get involved, please reach out gbblueprintdirector@gmail.com