If you believe you are eligible for HCD, please email hcd@brhp.org to request a referral form.

The Healthy Children Voucher Demonstration (HCD) is a program that is intended for up to 150 current Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) tenant-based voucher holders. You may be referred to the Demonstration by your medical provider or by a health worker through one of our community health partners, including the Community Asthma Program, Harriet Lane Clinic, and B’more for Healthy Babies. The Healthy Children Voucher Demonstration is aimed at children of any age under 18 with a range of medical conditions, including anxiety, asthma, depression, and other conditions. Additionally, families currently expecting a child may be eligible for HCD participation. Note that families already in the BRHP Baltimore Housing Mobility Program are ineligible to become part of the HCD.

The Healthy Children Demonstration works through a referral system. Health workers and medical professionals at our health partner institutions will be able to refer their patients to the HCD at the time of a medical appointment or home visit, based on whether the patient has a tenant-based HABC voucher and one or more medical conditions that qualify them for HCD. Once patients are referred, HABC conducts an eligibility review to ensure that the referred household is a current voucher-holder and has no past-due rent or utilities. Eligible households will then be sent to BRHP, who will send an invitation for HCD Orientation.

Participants in the Healthy Children Demonstration will continue to receive their voucher from the Housing Authority of Baltimore City; they will not receive their voucher from BRHP. HCD households will be counseled by BRHP counselors and staff, will work on creating an Action Plan to prepare for their move, and will have access to a number of BRHP resources and educational materials.

The Healthy Children Demonstration is designed to help HABC families transition to areas where their children’s health needs will be better met and improved. The HCD is not open to families in the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program. If a family currently participating in the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program with BRHP wishes to move for health-related reasons, they may complete a Request to Move form, available here.

BRHP counselors and staff will support HCD families on an individual, case-by-case basis to determine their goals, barriers to leasing, and other action items. Each family’s goals may be different, and counseling will be informed based on one-on-one counseling sessions. For example, a family with a child suffering from asthma may want to move to an area with greater air quality and fewer asthma triggers, so special emphasis will be placed on meeting these goals during a family’s housing search. Similarly, a family may need help being connected with insurance, a primary care physician, or a medical specialist, which BRHP will assist with. BRHP will work with a network of partners and community resources to help meet a family’s concerns and needs during all phases of the move process.