AMHERST — The town should increase its stock of affordable housing, offer more reliable transportation and improve access to healthy food, according to recommendations included in a community health needs assessment recently completed by School of Public Health students at the University of Massachusetts.

An overview of the report, presented to the Board of Health at its June 8 meeting and based on research and interviews conducted between February 2022 and this June, also notes the challenges for people to access primary medical care and dentists, and that while the town offers many various social services, these are often fragmented.

Kyle O’Connor, a student who is working for the town’s Health Department, said the ideas included in the report can be used by town officials and others to improve health outcomes for people across the socioeconomic spectrum in Amherst.

“The assessment identified recommendations that the community can work together for a healthier and more equitable Amherst,” O’Connor said.

Emily Conners, who led the project, said the key health needs, assets and challenges were discovered through data collection and analysis, prioritizing reaching at-risk populations, promoting equity and guiding policy development.

Board of Health Chairwoman Nancy Gilbert said the students worked hard with minimal resources, and the health of the town can be guided not just by the health department and Board of Health, but all government entities.

Gilbert said students learned that Amherst residents want positive results.

“Our vulnerable populations are not seeing action, and they’re tired of telling their stories, they’re weary and they need action,” Gilbert said.

The students presented various recommendations, including for the town to continue to support more affordable and subsidized housing.

“The biggest thing we found, due to the overpopulation of college campuses, the colleges will make students find places to live off campus, and students are very easy targets for landlords to raise the prices of rent,” said James DiSilvio, one of the students involved in the project.

This has caused more than 56% of renters to pay more than 35% of income on rent, meaning they are defined as cost burdened by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. This means people have trouble finding houses to afford, and then face additional problems of getting food, health care and transportation.

Amherst spends about one quarter of what Northampton does on its public health services, and less than half of Easthampton, the assessment found. This limits being able to have services, such as outreach workers.

“It doesn’t have the access to staff and resources it needs to go above and beyond the projects it’s already managing,” O’Connor said.

The study also found classism in the public schools, said Neha Rahalkar, and a recommendation is for more culturally responsive school programming and avenues for students who want to pursue vocational opportunities.

Catherine Grella noted that the assessment shows one quarter of families in town are low income, and live more than a mile from a supermarket where they can get affordable food. In fact, 97% of all residents live in a U.S. Department of Agriculture-designated food desert.

“Food is very hard for a lot of residents to access comfortably,” Grella said.

Even when they can get to stores via buses, they are facing the bag limit when taking PVTA buses.

While Amherst has many social services, Conners said not all are in one site.

“We’ve heard from a lot of people that if you are struggling, you may need to go to three our four places to meet your basic needs,” Conners said.

Conners said the town should continue to get feedback from the community to ensure interventions and policies are responsive to the diverse needs of the community.

“We tried to talk to as many as people as possible, but due to limitations in resources and time, we couldn’t talk to everybody, obviously,” Conners said.

Health Director Jennifer Brown thanked the students for their work and said staff would be inspired to use the report to implement specific ideas.

O’Connor said some recommendations may move forward as part of his work for the town, though DiSilvio observes that some things are harder to do, which is why the continuing community assessment is a good idea.

“I applaud of all your efforts,” said board member Timothy Randhir.

Board member Lauren Mills said she hopes more can be done.

“I wish there was a way to enliven the information through a public campaign,” Mills said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>