Top Housing Issue Identified in Kent County Community Health Needs Assessment

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Kent County Community Health Needs Assessment has just been released.

The goal of the assessment is to understand the most pressing health issues in the county.

The study is conducted every three years in partnership with five local hospital systems.

In this way, the most important problems were identified as follows:

• Accommodation
• Health insurance
• Access to medical care
• Access to healthy food

“This is the first time since we have been doing these joint needs assessments since 2011 that housing has been prioritized as a major need,” said Maris Brummel, Kent County Public Health Epidemiologist.
Housing is the number one concern.

FOX 17 combed through some of the evaluation's findings.

Homelessness increased by 70% between 2019 and 2023, and Black residents are disproportionately affected.

Rising rents have also been identified as a problem, with the cost of rent increasing by 36% between 2017 and 2022.

In Kent County, one in three people live in housing that is not considered affordable. This means that the cost of their housing exceeds 30% of their income.

One in five people spend more than half of their money on housing.

Housing is also a health issue due to environmental factors such as lead paint and poor air quality.

“I think stress is a big part of it. But really, it's just a basic need that people…they need a safe, stable place to live, to be able to do everything that concerns their health. If they don’t have safe, stable, affordable housing, they can’t work on other health issues,” Brummel said.

The study is 164 pages long. It is often used for things like grant writing.

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