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NYC Health + Hospitals has launched a program to provide home care to formerly homeless patients transitioning to permanent housing, marking a targeted expansion of services through the new Bridge to Care NYC homelessness pilot.
What the Bridge to Care NYC Homelessness Pilot Actually Covers
Patients receive home health aides funded by NYC Health + Hospitals during the period between move-in and Medicaid approval, covering a service gap that can typically last 45 to 90 days and ensuring patients’ safe transition into permanent housing. Bridge to Care is funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and aims to bridge service gaps by providing medically vulnerable patients with supplementary, personalized care to support their adjustment to independent living.
How the Pilot Launched
For the pilot program’s launch, Housing for Health partnered with the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing to place 22 NYC Health + Hospitals patients experiencing homelessness into Fischer Senior Apartments, a newly opened 105-unit senior and supportive housing development in the Bronx.
How Bridge to Care Fits NYC Health + Hospitals’ Broader Housing for Health Initiative
Bridge to Care is under Housing for Health, an NYC Health + Hospitals initiative that creates housing supports and opportunities for patients experiencing homelessness, said Leora Jontef, senior assistant vice president of housing and real estate at NYC Health + Hospitals. She added that NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public healthcare system in the nation and about 70,000 patients, 7% of the population served, are experiencing homelessness.
Why Housing Is Central to This Approach
“We know that where you live really impacts your health outcomes, your mental health, your physical health, and we have created a suite of services to help our patients get housed,” Jontef said. Housing for Health acts as a universal point of access for housing at NYC Health + Hospitals, with other services including housing navigation and medical respite.
The Scale of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Existing Housing Services
The housing navigation program helps about 500 people find housing each year, and the medical respite program gives patients who are medically cleared to leave the hospital a place to stay and recover, Jontef said. “We aim to break the hospital-to-shelter cycle that traps many individuals experiencing homelessness by providing them with housing and services that meet their unique needs,” Jontef said.
Why Speed to Stable Housing Matters
“The idea is that this would move someone into housing quicker, and so that they would stabilize faster and not languish in other places, whether it’s shelter or [being] in the hospital, or [in] our medical respite program,” Jontef told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “We want to move people into housing more quickly, and this is a tool to do it.”
A Patient’s Perspective on the Bridge to Care NYC Homelessness Program
Edward Johnson, an NYC Health + Hospitals patient who was part of Bridge to Care’s pilot, said the program is about more than just housing. “It’s not just about having your own place. It’s about having professional help; having people help you get your medicine, help you make appointments, help you get Meals on Wheels, help you get benefits,” Johnson said in a statement. “I don’t think I would have been able to do this on my own. This is the greatest thing since sliced bread for me.”
Support From the Helmsley Charitable Trust
“At Helmsley, we know that support during critical transitions in care, especially from the hospital to permanent housing, can be game-changing for the health stability of people experiencing homelessness and health issues,” said Tracy Perrizo, New York City program officer at the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “Bridge to Care and Project ASAP are innovative projects that will have multiplying impacts for people experiencing homelessness in NYC.”
What This Bridge to Care NYC Homelessness Pilot Means Going Forward
With the pilot’s initial 22-patient placement at Fischer Senior Apartments now underway, this program offers a concrete test case for whether temporary, funded home health aide support during the Medicaid approval gap can meaningfully reduce the rate at which formerly homeless patients cycle back through hospitals or shelters. Given NYC Health + Hospitals’ scale, serving roughly 70,000 patients experiencing homelessness annually, the outcomes from this pilot could inform whether the health system expands similar bridge-funding models to a broader share of its housing navigation and medical respite populations.
What to Watch Going Forward
As the Bridge to Care pilot continues, housing and healthcare policy observers will likely watch whether the model succeeds in reducing hospital readmissions and shelter returns among participating patients, outcomes that would help justify expanding the approach beyond its initial 22-patient cohort. Given the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s stated interest in this project’s “multiplying impacts,” this Bridge to Care NYC homelessness initiative may also serve as a template other public health systems consider adopting to address the specific administrative gap between housing placement and Medicaid-funded home care eligibility.
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