housing and health

Ashley Close, staff attorney at Children's Law Center, right, checks in with Dr. Ankita Khandai, center, and Dr. Candice Dawes, left, at Children's National's Anacostia clinic in Washington, D.C. Close works with doctors to help them fight for healthy living conditions for patients. Medical-legal partnerships like this are spreading nationwide.

Health & Safety

When landlords won't fix asthma triggers like mold, doctors call in the lawyers

6:41am November 20, 2023

by Maria Godoy

Mold, pests and rodents in the home can lead to life-threatening asthma attacks in kids. Increasingly, doctors see this as a medical issue that requires legal intervention.

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Kayce Atencio, who had a heart attack when he was 19, was unable to rent an apartment for years because of bad credit attributed in part to thousands of dollars of medical debt. "It always felt like I just couldn't get a leg up," says Atencio, one of millions of Americans whose access to housing is threatened by medical debt.

Health & Safety
National

Medical debt nearly pushed this family into homelessness. Millions more are at risk

5:00am September 11, 2023

by Noam Levey

Saddled with debt from health care, many Americans are forced into painful tradeoffs. And some are losing their homes.

Demonstrators march in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood in June to demand a lifting of the Illinois rent control ban and a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments. The pandemic's financial pressures are causing many Americans to struggle with rent payme

Economy
Health & Safety

'No One Can Live Off $240 A Week': Many Americans Struggle To Pay Rent, Bills

8:02pm September 23, 2020

One in six households reported missing or delaying paying bills just so they could buy food, an NPR poll says. And many are having trouble paying the rent, especially African Americans and Latinos.

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