Housing as a determinant of health
Mr. R. recovered from recent neck surgery by doing rehabilitation at a local nursing home. And, even though he’s recovered, he’s still there. He is in the middle of a housing crisis that has left him homeless and me incredulous that finding safe, affordable housing in Camden is nearly impossible.
Mr. R is a 60 year old man who, along with neck surgery, is recovering from addiction. He has been on methadone maintenance therapy for years and has stayed away from heroine. Recovering from cocaine has been far more difficult. As goes the natural progression of addiction diseases, he has quit and has relapsed. Before his recent hospitalization for the neck surgery, he was living with a family member. At this home, many people use cocaine, which fueled his relapses. When we met him in the nursing home he begged us to help him find a different place to live so that he might have a chance of staying clean. He knows the cocaine makes him weak, incites his bad decisions, and leaves him unable to contribute to his family.
We promised to help him find a new place to live. Like many of our patients he has a very limited income. For Mr. R, it’s $700 a month. He is willing to spend almost all of it on a safe home. Yet, the 7 or 8 Camden apartment buildings that have a few rooms for less than $700 a month are full and not accepting applications. They already have waiting lists greater than a year and a half.
Mr. R. will qualify for housing assistance offered from the state. To apply for these housing vouchers you need to have a photo ID. Mr. R. has lived in the city his entire life, never drove, and has no driver’s license. He also never got a state ID.
To obtain an ID in New Jersey, you need to provide several forms of identification. You need a birth certificate or other primary document of identification, social security card, bank statement, or current health insurance card to fulfill a six-point system. Our patient only has a health insurance card so our first task was tracking down his birth certificate. Like many people his age, there was no official state certificate issued at his birth. We discovered he was born in Detroit. To send for his birth certificate we filled out an intricate form and needed a lawyers petition to acquire it. We sent for it express 3 weeks ago–we are still waiting. Hopefully it will come soon.
Until we can acquire his social security number, the other documents we need, and head to the motor vehicle commission for a state ID Mr. R. will remain in the nursing home. Each day it costs Medicaid $200 to keep him there – that’s $6000 per month. But, he’s safe there. He’s not doing drugs and recovering wonderfully. He has hope that tomorrow will be better and he will find a new place to live. We’ll continue searching.
Read Jen’s Bio.
