NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2009
Contact: Jamie Arehart (jarehart@phmc.org or 267-350-7699)

Residents Report Difficulty Paying Monthly Housing Payments, Utilities

PHILADELPHIA-Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) releases its 2008 Household Health Survey housing report today for Bucks County. Conducted by PHMC’s Community Health Data Base (CHDB), the survey, which examines the health and health care experiences of area residents, is one of the largest regional health surveys in the country.

Bucks county residents struggling
• Nearly half, (48%) of residents report difficulty making their monthly housing payments, including utilities Similarly, 48% of residents in the Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) five county region report difficulty. To see a breakdown by county, please click here
• 59% of renters and 46% of homeowners report difficulty
• 51% of households that report difficulty have children in residence, representing about 37,000 households

Health and housing in Bucks County
• Nearly one in five adults (19%) who report difficulty making their housing payments also report being in fair or poor health (versus 9% of adults who report little difficulty)
• More than one in four adults (28%) who report difficulty making their housing payments also have a chronic medical condition (versus 20% of adults who report little difficulty)

Characteristics of Bucks County adults struggling to pay housing costs
• 78% of Bucks County’s poor adults, those with household incomes below 100% of the Federal Poverty Line, report more difficulty making housing payments compared to the county’s non-poor adults (47%) Latino adults (62%) report more difficulty making housing payments than their White (48%), Black/African American (49%) and Asian (44%) counterparts.

Data from the SEPA Household Health Survey is collected by a randomized telephone survey of 10,000 households in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. Special reports covering trends in area health and health care such chronic disease, obesity and guns and personal safety are featured monthly on the CHDB website, www.phmc.org/chdb.

For media inquiries or specific data runs, please call contact Jamie Arehart at jarehart@phmc.org or 267-350-7699. For more information on CHDB, please contact Francine Axler at francine@phmc.org or 215-985-2521.