Healthcare Companies Successfully Invest in Affordable Housing

The Center for Active Design (CfAD) announces the release of Healthcare: A Cure for Housing, a new publication that identifies best practices for investing in affordable housing, drawing from healthcare industry leaders at the forefront of tackling access to affordable housing as a way to impact health.

The six featured case studies demonstrate how affordable housing can be leveraged to achieve a double bottom line—successfully improving the health of patients, while generating the profitability needed to expand operations and impact. Among Medicaid recipients, affordable housing has been shown to contribute to a 12 percent reduction in overall healthcare expenditures, an 18 percent decrease in emergency department visits, and a 20 percent increase in primary care use.

Healthcare: A Cure for Housing expands CfAD’s efforts to bring about market transformation throughout the real estate sector. “By featuring success stories from across the healthcare industry, and portraying the economic benefits of these efforts, the Center for Active Design is helping bring new leaders into the fold,” says Warren Hanson, president and CEO of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. “In doing so, this publication can help further investment in quality, affordable housing across the country and motivate the development of new, strategic, multisector partnerships.”

The publication’s contributors reflect a diversity of institutional scales and geographic reach. Their stories illuminate multiple pathways for affordable housing investments in response to unique local contexts. The following are among the organizations included in this publication:

• Bon Secours Mercy Health - Baltimore, MD
• Central City Concern - Portland, OR
• CommonSpirit Health - California
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital - Columbus, OH
• ProMedica - Toledo, OH

Available for download here, this publication was made possible thanks to generous support from the Kresge Foundation. The publication details innovative mechanisms for unifying local housing and health priorities—serving as a valuable resource for healthcare companies, community development financial institutions, and developers alike. “The affordable housing crisis is complex, and in order to solve, we must expand investment from diverse stakeholders," explains Stacey Barbas, senior program officer with the Kresge Foundation’s Health Program. “Given the connection between health and housing, the healthcare sector has a vested interest in increasing access to quality, affordable housing within the communities they serve.”

“Having access to affordable, safe, and stable housing is fundamental to supporting health. As the operator of Fitwel, we already know how to design housing to optimize health. With this new publication, we are identifying practical steps to increase investments in affordable housing from all those who benefit from having a healthier population,” says Joanna Frank, president & CEO of CfAD. “These healthcare institutions have already made the connection, and we are excited to celebrate their innovations.” CfAD recently collaborated with Fannie Mae to develop the Healthy Housing Rewards^TM program, which provides a loan pricing discount to borrowers that achieve Fitwel Certification for affordable housing projects.

The Center for Active Design is the leading international non-profit organization using design to foster healthy and engaged communities. The Center for Active Design's mission is to transform design and development practice to support health, ensuring equitable access to vibrant public and private spaces that support optimal quality of life. For more information about the Center for Active Design, please visit www.centerforactivedesign.org and follow CfAD on Twitter @active_design.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191204005185/en/