HOP was an experimental program that used Medicaid money to help people with food, transportation, housing, and mental health. WHQR set out to see how HOP participants and non-profit partners have fared since.
Cynthia Brock is a single parent of five living on disability in Wilmington. When she asked management to handle a pest issue at her last rental home, she declined using a spray pesticide because one of her sons was sick with breathing issues. Then, management told her to vacate.
Brock said the cost of getting a new place in Wilmington’s housing market was too much to handle on her own.
“I’ve been here all my life. To be out on my own at a young age compared to now, the price in housing, period, has changed. Everything has changed, food prices, bills in general, but most has been housing,” she said.
HOP helped her pay her security deposit to move into a new home.
“God has blessed me to be in a five bedroom, three full bath. If it wasn’t for God himself and the HOP program, I wouldn’t be where I am,” Brock said.
She also said HOP is what enabled her daughter to move to Charlotte from Wilmington.
Brock said, “You can do different things when you have just a little help sometimes. All you need is a little help.”
The pilot program wasn’t just meant to provide food or connect people with housing resources. It was also meant to save people money on healthcare. A study from the University of North Carolina released early last month shows HOP was saving Medicaid beneficiaries in the state an average of $164 per month on their healthcare costs.
The program was doing that by targeting what are known as the social determinants of health. Those are all the non-medical factors like food, housing, transportation, and violence that influence health outcomes.
Abdul Hafeedh bin Abdullah is the executive director of Quality Life Blueprint and the Sokoto House Community Center. His organization partnered with HOP to provide a number of services to people in the Wilmington area, especially focusing on community violence prevention.
Abdullah said HOP’s approach was bold and new.
He said, “Traditionally, social determinants of health have always been a part of the vernacular of public health, but it’s never been prioritized because people felt it was just too much. ‘How do you really address that?’”
HOP addressed the social determinants in a lot of concrete ways. For example, it didn’t just help Brock with housing.
“There were times when my car was down and I needed tires. The HOP program made sure I had brand new tires all the way around my car, so that I would be able to get to doctor’s appointments for not only me but my kids,” she said.
Since the pilot ended, things have just been a little tougher for Brock. She said, “It helped a lot when I needed help, but now, I just try to do what I can as a single parent and make sure I have the lights on for my kids. The main thing is that my rent is paid.”
Non-profit leaders have felt HOP’s absence as well. Abdullah says Sokoto House was able to help people with more services and more money when the pilot was around. He calls the difference “night and day.”
He also says gentrification was already putting pressure on people in Wilmington, especially in Black communities.
“In the absence of HOP, you see them just leaving. They were already leaving, but now they’re leaving because there’s no help,” Abdullah said.
Meade Van Pelt is the executive director of The Jo Ann Carter Harrelson Center, a non-profit hub that connects people with resources and services. She said losing HOP’s partnership has changed what the Harrelson Center was able to do.
“You’re looking at someone who we could help to the tune of $2,000. We’re now back to $200. In today’s environment, that’s just not enough to solve a problem,” she said.
The most recent state budget did restore funding to the HOP program, providing a one-time appropriation of $9 million in state money and $16 million in federal funds, for a total of $25 million in funding. As North Carolina Health News reported this week, that's $55 million less than the $80 million initially requested by state officials. HOP program leaders have also voiced concerns about rebuilding the program after a year without funding.
Still, Van Pelt says she believes there’s hope for non-profits to get funding and donations to help bridge shortfalls in HOP funding.
Even now, Brock stays optimistic and grateful. She said, “I’m in a house and I love it. I love it.”
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include information about funding for HOP which was included in the proposed state budget.