The Center for Community Investment at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has partnered with six hospitals and health systems to officially launch Accelerating Investments for Healthy Communities (AIHC), which will help health institutions and their community partners deploy their financial resources, land and expertise to advance affordable housing as a way to create more equitable, sustainable and healthy communities.
The AIHC health systems and hospitals and their geographic focus regions are:
• Bon Secours Mercy Health System (Baltimore and Cincinnati)
• Boston Medical Center (Boston)
• Dignity Health (San Bernardino, CA)
• Kaiser Permanente (Purple Line Corridor, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, MD)
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Columbus, OH)
• UPMC (Pittsburgh)
AIHC is designed to help hospitals and health systems deepen their investment in affordable housing, and advance policies and practices that foster equitable housing solutions. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, healthcare institutions will build on their existing momentum and planning accomplished last year, and take the next steps to partner with others in their communities to protect and increase the supply of affordable homes, which are critical to ensuring good health and social and economic stability in a community.
A story in the Baltimore Sun noted that Bon Secours has long worked with others to bring housing to the hospital’s service area in West Baltimore, developing 802 units so far. More units are in the pipeline, George Kleb, executive director of Housing & Community Development at Bon Secours Baltimore Health System, told the newspaper. “The new partnership will allow it to pursue even more housing in Baltimore and elsewhere that the Bon Secour’s parent company operates. There is no specific amount of money designated, but Bon Secours already is working on its next project, a 58-unit building on Fulton Avenue, he said.”
Kaiser Permanente recently pledged $200 million to invest in housing across the country; Nationwide Children’s Hospital announced the creation of a $20 million fund to finance 170 multi-family rental units on the South Side of Columbus; and Dignity Health in San Bernardino worked with community partners and the State of California to leverage more than $20 million dollars for a housing project that is expected to create hundreds of units of affordable and market-rate housing. Currently, Dignity Health has approved nearly $100 million in community development loans, forty-five percent of which is for affordable housing. Additionally, UPMC and UPMC Health Plan have invested millions of dollars in a number of initiatives over the past three years to spur the creation of affordable housing options for people in low- to moderate-income households, including the use of a number of financing options that support the expansion of Community Land Trusts in Pittsburgh to help promote permanent, affordable homeownership opportunities.
Participants in AIHC will include not only health system executives and staff, but also representatives from local government, affordable housing developers, foundations, community groups, and community development financial institutions.
Over the next two years, participants will develop and begin to execute a pipeline of affordable housing projects and work with partners to advance long-term community investment in affordable housing. They will also receive coaching and technical support; opportunities to learn with other communities doing similar work; and access to resources to advance their development strategies and leverage their investments.
