RICHARD CAHILL
Spurred Quincy effort

Nurses, physical therapists and other health care workers are struggling to afford housing in many major U.S. cities, including the Boston metro area, according to a new study.

The study, released by the National Housing Conference’s Center for Housing Policy last week, shows that health care workers would not be able to buy a home in most of the 202 metro areas nationwide that were surveyed.

The annual median salaries of physical therapists, nurses, nursing aides and home health aides fall short of what is needed to purchase a home in the Boston area. Workers need an annual income of $121,611 in order to afford the mortgage on a $355,000 home, the median price of a home in the Boston area, the study reveals. But the median salary of physical therapists in the region is $70,378, while the salary of registered nurses is $66,120 and licensed practical nurses $41,862. Home health aides’ and nursing aides’ median salaries are $23,018 and $27,901, respectively.

Renting an apartment also can be difficult for health care workers in many parts of the country. The study found that health care workers need to make $25.46 an hour in order to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston area. Hourly wages for home health aides and nursing aides in the region are $11.07 and $13.41, respectively, while licensed practical nurses earn $20.13 hourly.

High housing costs have become a particular concern to some of the region’s world-renowned hospitals and medical facilities in recent years. As home prices and rents soared over the last several years, local hospital officials joined business leaders and policymakers in Massachusetts in discussing how housing expenses make it difficult to attract new employees.

Home prices aren’t necessarily creating serious challenges at Massachusetts General Hospital when it comes to attracting new nurses and other health care workers from the region. But it does make it tougher to recruit qualified and experienced health care professionals from other parts of the country – particularly the South, where the cost of living is lower – according to Steven Taranto, the hospital’s director of human resources.

“We’re fortunate that we don’t rely on having to do a lot of out-of-state recruitment. Fortunately, we have a lot of human capital resources in Massachusetts,” said Taranto, who noted that half of newly hired nurses are recent graduates from the Boston area. “I would prefer, for diversity purposes, to be able to recruit out of Massachusetts.”

Retaining nurses and health care workers who have recently graduated and are dealing with hefty school loan payments, however, can be difficult because of the Bay State’s steep housing costs, he acknowledged.

“Our turnover is higher for the recent graduates when faced with the challenge of the cost of living or the priority of paying off loans,” Taranto said.

He added, “I have about a 3 percent vacancy rate. I could say that I would have a smaller vacancy rate and less turnover with increased housing options for that workforce.”

Mass General has a special Web site focused on housing for employees who are searching for a home, and like many other employers, the hospital tries to help with parking and public transportation costs for workers that have long commutes. The hospital also will pay for relocation expenses for some workers, such as experienced critical-care registered nurses.

‘A Real Issue’
On the South Shore, Quincy Medical Center recently partnered with Jack Conway & Co., a Norwell-based real estate firm, to implement a program that returns a portion of the real estate commission from a home sale to employees and the hospital. David Ryan, Quincy Medical Center’s vice president of human resources, said the program was the brainchild of Conway executive Richard Cahill, who was treated at the hospital and wanted to express appreciation for the care he received.

Ryan said the program has been utilized by two employees. Like Mass General’s Taranto, he said that Quincy Medical Center recruits nurses and other employees from the region.

“Housing is certainly a real issue. But most of our recruiting is done regionally, and new employees already live in the area so they’re accustomed to our housing costs,” he noted.

Still, Ryan acknowledged that high housing and medical malpractice insurance costs can become an issue when it comes to attracting new physicians, who are generally recruited from outside of New England.

Nationwide, licensed practical nurses were priced out of 187 metro areas, while registered nurses couldn’t afford to buy a home in 115, the study showed. The study – part of the Center for Housing Policy’s annual report “Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America” – found that physical therapists wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage to buy a median priced home in 104 areas, and nursing aides and home health aides couldn’t buy a house in any of the metro areas studied.

Barbara Lipman, the center’s research director, said it was surprising that registered nurses and physical therapists, professionals with generally competitive salaries, were priced out of so many homeownership markets. Overall, the median annual salaries of nurses, physical therapists, home health aides and nursing aides nationwide were lower than the annual income of $84,957 needed to buy a median-priced home of $248,000, the study revealed.

As for rentals, nursing aides couldn’t afford a two-bedroom apartment in 147 out of 210 metro markets examined in the report, while home health aides were priced out of 201 markets.

Lipman said the study’s findings are a concern because the population is aging and the nation is increasingly relying on health services.

“The fact that there may not be people there to provide these services is something that we all need to be concerned about,” she said. “We really have to find creative ways to provide housing Â… it has to take place at the state and local level.”

The Center for Housing Policy released the findings of the study in a joint announcement with Homes for Working Families, a national nonprofit group, last Wednesday. As part of the announcement, a policy handbook with six strategies for boosting the supply of affordable homes was issued. The strategies include making publicly owned land available for affordable housing, expediting the permitting process and adopting inclusionary zoning policies.

The book also highlights 22 local and state policies that have led to more affordable housing, including Massachusetts’ comprehensive permitting law, Chapter 40B.

“We wanted to put together in one place a simple-to-use best-practices guide about policies [policymakers and employers] could adopt or adapt to fit their needs or use as a foundation to other policies,” said Beverly Barnes, executive director of Homes for Working Families. “We really want to focus on solutions and make people aware that there are solutions available to this problem.”