Federal housing subsidies can open doors to jobs, experiences and opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. For some, housing subsidies also can mean the difference between life and death.

That’s the crux of a new study published earlier this fall from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which found that older adults using federal housing assistance had earlier cancer diagnoses than those who didn’t get help with rent. This was true for three of the most common cancers: breast, lung and colon.

The Hopkins researchers wanted to better understand the relationship between housing and health, and they chose to look at cancer because it affects so many people. Diagnosing the disease earlier often makes it easier to treat, so the findings suggest housing aid can save lives and money.

The study lends support to what housing officials and advocates have long believed: that housing and health care are deeply intertwined. It’s the latest in a mounting pile of evidence that shows spending on housing can lead to a range of benefits. But housing subsidies are under threat from President Donald Trump’s administration.

That includes a $46 million cut to Maryland’s share of a federal housing department program for homelessness prevention. The move has generated sharp blowback from housing providers and advocates who said existing homelessness programs are effective at keeping people healthy and should be beefed up rather than pared back.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said Tuesday the state was joining 19 other states in suing over the “unlawful” changes, which he said would “will force more than 4,000 Marylanders out of their homes.”

The Trump administration has defended the shift as a path toward greater “self-sufficiency” for those who receive government aid. More generally, critics have debated the large upfront costs for housing programs and who should pay.

Hopkins’ housing study looked at more than 52,000 Medicare patients ages 66 to 95 over a 12-year span ending in 2019 who received federal assistance to rent private properties or public housing. They were compared to a group that did not receive housing assistance. It was published on Oct. 8 in JAMA Network Open and supported with funding from the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Craig Pollack, a Johns Hopkins University physician and researcher and the paper’s lead author, said rental assistance may enable people to “have the bandwidth” to focus on their health. That could entail getting annual screenings or following up on symptoms that might have otherwise gone ignored if someone was having trouble making rent.

And it’s not just cancer, Pollack added: A history of other research suggests that stable, quality and affordable housing contributes to better health and well-being and often means better access to health care.

Federal housing assistance is reserved for people with the lowest incomes, but Pollack said only about 1 in 4 households eligible for assistance receive it. HUD data shows about 2.3 million low-income adults qualify but don’t receive housing assistance.

A Maryland program launched in 2017 to provide housing and support to formerly unhoused people has reduced homelessness and excessive health care spending by helping manage chronic conditions. Under the program, called Assistance in Community Integration Services, or ACIS, people used emergency and other hospital services less than before they were enrolled, according to the latest assessment released in June by The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Most people previously had unmet medical and behavioral health needs that routinely landed them in the emergency room. The data helped Health Care for the Homeless and others to persuade the state government’s Medicaid health program to pick up the tab for the nonmedical support services: getting IDs, filling out applications, securing food and finding rides to the doctor.

Those services may seem mundane, but they serve a crucial role in helping people achieve lasting stability, said Beth Benner, executive director of the Women’s Housing Coalition, which serves low-income people with disabilities and their families.

Benner said she has seen case workers gently persuade hesitant clients to see physicians, sometimes for the first time in years. Some have gone to receive knee and foot operations, lymphedema treatment, dental care and substance use treatment.

But it often doesn’t happen overnight, Benner said, and it can take time to build enough trust with people to convince them to tend to their health.

“People have a lot of obstacles they have to navigate before they get to stability,” Benner said. Caseworkers are the bridge.

At Catholic Charities of Baltimore, which bills itself as one of the largest service providers in the state, social workers and staff are tasked with a range of responsibilities — from helping residents with housekeeping and laundry to assisting them with applications for utility bill relief, said Jill Kratz, the organization’s senior manager of senior communities.

The organization houses about 2,000 older adults across 24 apartment communities, and there are about as many people across the waitlists, Kratz said.

Many of the current residents have both low incomes and disabilities. Federal benefits play a core role in their care, Kratz said, supporting not just housing payments but sometimes also food and medical treatments.

At Basilica Place in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon, residents have access to on-site service coordinators who help their communities age in place. The 200-unit apartment building also hosts monthly blood pressure screenings and recreational activities in the lobby, which have lifted Mary Wilkins’ spirits as she’s undergone treatment for breast cancer, COVID-19 and vertigo during her residency.

Wilkins, 88, has lived at Basilica Place since 2003, and she feels her surroundings have contributed to her long life. She’s safe, secure and surrounded by help when she needs it. Caseworkers Tonya Spruill and Donnet Lawrence, she added, have become part of her family.

“I’m just happy to be here,” Wilkins said. “As each day came and went, I relaxed.”