Bridging Housing and Health with Jeff Smythe

Housing has become a silent crisis that's reshaping lives across America, with each rising rent bill and rejected application chipping away at people's sense of stability and hope. In this episode, I'm sitting down with Jeffrey Smythe, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement (ARCHI), to explore a different approach to rental assistance. Jeff explains his innovative technology solution that's changing how people access housing support, the critical connection between housing and health, and how nonprofits can build strong partnerships to tackle this challenge. Getting housing right is fundamental to improving health outcomes and supporting community well-being. You’ll Hear: (02:35)  How housing instability traps families in cycles of poverty and hardship (05:30) What is unique about housing instability in the Atlanta metro area (08:39) What is ARCHI and how it supports rent, mortgage, and utility relief (13:05) What was the process like for creating ARCHI, and what did it take to build the necessary partnerships across organizations to share data (16:59) How ARCHI tracks whether someone has been served after a referral is made (18:36) What led 18 members to say ‘yes’ to joining ARCHI (21:43) How housing instability and homelessness are connected to negative health outcomes (25:20) Some examples in Atlanta where the conversation around housing is integrated into the client-provider relationship, using terms like a “prescription” for housing assistance Connect with Jeff Smythe and learn more about ARCHI.