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NCSHA Initiative Supports State Housing Finance Agency Partnerships with Health Systems, Communities to Finance Affordable Housing

Published on May 20, 2022

WASHINGTON, DC The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) today announced it has awarded grants to six state housing finance agencies (HFAs) to develop strategic partnerships with hospitals and other health organizations to finance affordable housing. The grants are the foundation of the NCSHA-sponsored Healthy Housing, Healthy Communities (H3C) Partnerships initiative, which aims to leverage the state HFAs’ role at the center of the affordable housing system to attract significant health institution involvement and elevate community-level leadership in addressing the worsening housing affordability crisis in America. 

The state housing finance agencies that received funding are:

“Each of these leading agencies has a vision for engaging major health institutions serving their states in new ways to generate increased investment in the construction and rehabilitation of housing that is responsive to local community priorities and participation,” said NCSHA Executive Director Stockton Williams.  

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the grants will enable state HFAs to perform the planning, due diligence, and outreach necessary to secure significant financial commitments from hospitals and health organizations, which the agencies will complement with financing of their own. Community-based organizations will play key roles in each partnership. 

“The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation believes state housing finance agencies are uniquely positioned to drive deeper and more impactful connections between the housing and health sectors that result in more capital for affordable housing,” said Kimberlee Cornett, director of impact investments for the foundation. “Our investment will help HFAs test and refine approaches that we hope can be replicated and scaled across the country.” 

The Center for Community Investment (CCI) will partner with NCSHA to support H3C, drawing on its experience across the country helping health institutions and their partners bring their resources to bear on their local community investment systems. “As CCI has supported health institutions investing in affordable housing over the last few years, one of the most important things we’ve learned is that partnerships, both with the public sector and community residents, are critical to the success of this work and its impact on health equity,” said CCI Executive Director Robin Hacke. “We are excited to help the H3C initiative encourage more such partnerships and create new opportunities to invest upstream to improve community health.” 

The initiative was inspired by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s award-winning Hospital Partnership Subsidy Program, which has worked with community partners to close on two projects currently under construction. Their combined $70 million investment will produce 146 units of affordable and supportive housing in Paterson and Newark, NJ. Another three hospital partnership projects across the state, representing an additional 170 units of housing and greater than $70 million in total development costs, have applied and will advance through the financing process in the months ahead. 

“The Hospital Partnership Subsidy Program began with a very simple premise: Housing is healthcare. Where and how people live affects their well-being,” said Melanie R. Walter, executive director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. “The high-quality apartment housing produced through this innovative partnership program empowers hospitals to make impactful affordable housing and wellness investments in their communities and ensures residents have access to critical resources including wraparound services.”

Grant Recipient Profiles 

For more information on NCSHA’s H3C initiative, contact Tracy Kaufman or Lisa Bowman.