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New Funds Will Develop and Sustain Public Housing Authority Initiatives to Improve Postsecondary Achievement for Low-Income Households
WASHINGTON (November 25, 2019) – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, a housing advocacy organization and leader in efforts to improve life outcomes for low-income individuals and families, announced today that it has been awarded $300,000 from The Kresge Foundation to deepen connections between public housing authorities and their postsecondary education partners.
The three-year grant enables CLPHA to build on work that began last year, in partnership with The Kresge Foundation, to convene cross-sector housing and education partners who are collaborating to improve postsecondary achievement for students served by public housing authorities, including residents and housing insecure college students.
“Last year we showcased how these two sectors are working together to improve educational outcomes for low-income households. With generous funding from The Kresge Foundation, we will help more cross-sector partners develop and sustain their work,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “As a national organization representing 70 of the largest public housing authorities in the country, CLPHA is well-positioned to identify promising innovations and facilitate peer-learning among those doing the work with the goal to scale successful initiatives that can be replicated nationally. We are very grateful to The Kresge Foundation for its multi-year support of our work.”
With the funds, CLPHA, through its Housing Is Initiative, will establish a leadership institute for a cohort of public housing authority staff and their partners who demonstrate the experience and capacity for postsecondary collaboration. In addition to virtual meetings aimed at institutionalizing their cross-sector work, members of the cohort will travel for in-person site visits to learn about the different projects in the field.
“By supporting stronger partnerships between housing authorities and postsecondary stakeholders, CLPHA’s leadership institute will help increase college access and success for both public housing residents who have postsecondary aspirations but need support to realize their dreams, and current college students, whose housing insecurity threatens to derail their educational progress," said Bethany Miller, program officer with the Kresge Education Program.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA.
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative
The Housing Is Initiative, led by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, helps build a future where sectors work together to improve life outcomes. Housing stability is a critical first step to improve life outcomes for low-income children, families, and seniors; CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative is based on the premise that sectors can better meet needs when they work together. Housing Is establishes, broadens, and deepens efforts to align affordable housing, education, and health systems to produce positive, long-term results. Learn more at housingis.org and on Twitter @housing_is.
About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
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CLPHA Submits Public Comments Opposing HUD’s Dangerous Non-Citizen Proposal
HUD’s cruel proposal would force mixed-status families to decide between a roof for some, or homelessness for all.
WASHINGTON (July 9, 2019) – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) today submitted public comments strongly opposing a proposal from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that seeks to eliminate mixed-status immigrant families from HUD-assisted housing, including 55,000 children who are either U.S. citizens or otherwise eligible for HUD assistance.
HUD’s proposal, published in the Federal Register on May 10 for a 60-day comment period, would reinterpret Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act to disallow anyone who cannot verify their immigration status from living in public housing or living in a market-rate apartment with a federal rental subsidy, even if their child or other family members are eligible for assistance. Under current law, rental assistance to these households is prorated and those ineligible for a subsidy pay their portion of the rent unassisted, often at market rates.
“HUD’s cruel proposal would force mixed-status families to decide between a roof for some, or homelessness for all,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “This reversal of long-standing policy is antithetical to the mission of public housing, which is to provide safe, affordable housing to very low-income families.”
“We know that stable housing is a platform for improving life outcomes and a foundation for healthy communities. Yet, this proposal instills fear and distrust, and would divert scarce resources, exacerbate the already crisis levels of homelessness, and, in the end, would do nothing to make our communities safer or better off,” said Zaterman.
“HUD’s proposal is contrary to our mission. Our members feel strongly that this re-interpreted regulation is bad public policy and our comments on the proposed rule reflect this,” said Zaterman.
Read CLPHA’s public comments and previous statements on HUD’s non-citizen rule on the CLPHA website, clpha.org.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
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For Immediate Release: July 2, 2019
CLPHA, Housing Experts Discuss Potential Dangers of HUD’s Proposed Housing Assistance Family Rule
A recording of the call is available HERE.
Washington, DC - Earlier today, immigration and housing experts gathered to address concerns regarding a recently proposed rule by the Trump administration that cruelly targets immigrant families to prevent them from receiving federal housing assistance. Experts discussed how the rule, which would affect about 25,000 households, would cruelly impact families of mixed-status.
The rule, the experts noted, would force families apart as they struggled to keep their current housing threatening many with homelessness, including the 55,000 children who are either U.S. citizens or otherwise eligible for housing benefits and who would be separated from their families
Below are quotes from today’s speakers.
Doug Guthrie, President and CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, said, “If this proposed rule change were to go through it would be devastating for Los Angeles families with mixed immigration status. It would impact as many as 11,600 individuals in assisted housing the majority of whom are young children who are American citizens and it would cost the housing authority millions of dollars. This would likely result in thousands of people becoming homeless at a time when homelessness is already a crisis in Los Angeles.”
Sunia Zaterman, Executive Director, Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, noted, “HUD’s proposal would force mixed status families to decide between a roof for some, or homelessness for all. This is antithetical to the mission of public housing, which is to provide safe, affordable housing to very low-income families. Instead, this proposal would exacerbate crisis levels of homelessness, divert scarce resources from already underfunded public housing authorities, and instill fear and distrust while doing nothing to make our communities safer or better off.”
Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition, added, “The cruelty of Secretary Carson’s proposal is breathtaking, and the harm it would inflict on children, families and communities is severe,” said National Low Income Housing Coalition President and CEO Diane Yentel. “Tens of thousands of deeply poor kids, mostly US citizens, could be evicted and made homeless by this proposal, and – by HUD’s own admission – there would be zero benefit to families on waiting lists. This proposal is another in a long line of attempts by the administration to instill fear in immigrants throughout the country. We will not stand for it.”
Arianna Cook-Thajudeen, Bank of America Legal Fellow, National Housing Law Project, said, “The National Housing Law Project opposes this proposed rule because it would have a detrimental impact on the housing stability of millions of families. The federal housing programs in particular serve as a lifeline for many families who are one step away from homelessness. What the Administration is doing is through this proposal is ruthless and reckless. We urge everyone to submit comments to HUD to oppose this rule by July 9th.”
Tory Gunsolley, President and CEO, Houston Housing Authority, remarked, “The current system works. Undocumented occupants are not receiving federal subsidies. The proposed regulations, on the other hand, would cause a needless increase in homelessness and cost the federal government more money. The proposed regulation would force HHA to be an extension of immigration enforcement, a role that does align with our mission to provide safe, affordable housing. It simply doesn't make sense to implement.”
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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis, and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
CLPHA Statement on PHA Radon and Mitigation Practices
WASHINGTON (November 22, 2019) - The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities issued the following statement in response to news coverage about radon testing and mitigation practices in public housing:
Public housing authorities (PHAs) are committed to providing rental housing that is safe, decent, and affordable for millions of low- and very-low income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. PHAs are regulated and funded by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which sets health and safety standards for PHA properties.
HUD does not require or fund PHAs to test for or mitigate radon in public housing units. While HUD does have radon testing and remediation requirements for certain multi-family properties, these do not apply to public housing.
Chronic underfunding of public housing has led to a mounting capital needs backlog of an estimated $70 billion, yet HUD’s most recent budget proposal would have slashed funding for public housing by $4.6 billion and zeroed out the Public Housing Capital Fund, which is designed to address capital needs.
PHAs welcome consistent standards with adequate funding to mitigate hazards through grants or other funding opportunities. As an example, CLPHA strongly supports bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate to mandate the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in all public housing units. The Safe Housing for Families Act would provide $300 million over a three-year period to install and maintain the detectors.
CLPHA is supportive of these and other comprehensive efforts to improve conditions in HUD-assisted housing for low and very low-income residents.
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“In the coming weeks, the House will consider bipartisan legislation to permanently authorize the disaster relief funding platform for housing programs. The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019 is rational, comprehensive, badly needed, and Congress should pass it. Its proposed standardization and codification would make it easier for public housing authorities (PHAs) to apply for, and receive, relief funds after being impacted by disasters the way our colleagues and their residents were in Houston during Hurricane Harvey, in Wilmington during Hurricane Florence, in San Buenaventura during the Camp Fire, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
“Perhaps if the bill were law today, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development would have a harder time intentionally stalling the disaster relief funding process for Puerto Rico, which two senior HUD officials admitted to doing during a hearing last month, and Secretary Carson has not denied.
“This is unconscionable and a blatant disregard of a statutory deadline. Though Congress has allocated $20 billion in CDBG-DR funds to Puerto Rico, HUD has only disbursed $1.5 billion, while thousands of American citizens struggle to recover.
“To remedy this, Senate appropriators included strong language in the THUD spending bill to prevent HUD from implementing its financial transformation initiative until the Department takes the appropriate steps to make all disaster recovery funds available along with necessary administrative requirements, which would include remaining allocations to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Congress must take action to compel HUD to follow the law. We urge support for the House and Senate efforts to ensure that all Americans, regardless of income and geography, whose housing is impacted by natural disaster receive the support they need quickly and efficiently.”
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
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WASHINGTON (September 20, 2019) – Sunia Zaterman, the Executive Director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, issued the following statement today in response to President Trump’s and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Carson’s recent comments on the crisis of homelessness in America:
“It is astounding that this administration is calling for an end to homelessness while refusing to reinvest in public and affordable housing. People without a place to live need stable housing, not just campaign rally rhetoric or politically driven economic reporting based on cherry-picked research to manufacture a root cause of homelessness.
“The reasons for homelessness vary and no single solution will end the crisis, but there is no question that the lack of affordable housing opportunities exacerbates the problem for families, people with disabilities, and veterans.
“The Housing First model, recognized by HUD as recently as December as the most effective way to end homelessness, treats stable housing as a platform for supportive services that meet immediate and long-term needs for individuals and families.
“Meanwhile, this Administration has tried to gut funding for HUD and for public housing authorities, which are essential partners in local efforts to provide safe, stable housing to low and very-low income families, and those most vulnerable to homelessness.
“PHAs work with their Continuums of Care to provide transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and vouchers to households exiting homelessness. They also coordinate with a variety of local service providers to offer supportive services to ensure housing stability, and work with health and education partners to promote access to services that are essential for family well-being and self-sufficiency.
“The hundreds of thousands of unsheltered people living on the streets in our country need real solutions, not campaign speeches.”
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
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CLPHA Members Elm City Communities, Miami-Dade Public Housing & Community Development Also Featured
Affordable Housing News magazine featured Executive Director Sunia Zaterman in its Fall 2019 issue, where Zaterman discussed CLPHA’s priorities, goals, and strategies for preserving and improving public and affordable housing. “We are very focused on appropriations and polices that support public housing authorities and the people they serve,” said Zaterman, adding that “[f]rom the beginning, we’ve been very focused on supporting the most innovative housing authorities in the country.” She cited programs like the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and Moving to Work (MTW) as flexible, locally-oriented policies that innovative housing authorities are using to improve their housing stock and resident outcomes. Zaterman also emphasized the public housing portfolio’s capital needs backlog of more than $50 billion and the chronic underfunding of public housing programs, issues that are at the center of CLPHA’s advocacy efforts.
The article also highlights CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative, which seeks to broaden and deepen efforts to align housing, education, and health organizations to produce positive long-term outcomes for low-income individuals and families. Zaterman discussed some of the Housing Is Initiative’s work, including the Housing Is Summit, an annual convening dedicated to collaboration among the housing, education, and health sectors, and the creation of a data sharing agreement template for housing authorities and school systems so that they can identify shared issues and interests and develop evidence-based interventions. “We understand that housing is absolutely essential and foundational, but often, for families and special needs populations, is not sufficient in and of itself,” Zaterman said. “Our goal with the Housing Is Initiative is to improve and enhance our partnerships in healthcare, education, and workforce development to improve life outcomes for families, seniors, and persons with disabilities who reside in assisted housing.”
Read Affordable Housing News' article (on pages 20 and 21).
CLPHA members Miami-Dade Public Housing & Community Development (Miami-Dade PCHD) and Elm City Communities (ECC) were also featured in Affordable Housing News’ Fall 2019 issue. Read about Miami-Dade PCHD’s RAD-assisted Liberty Square redevelopment on pages 34-36 and about ECC’s employment of MTW flexibilities to create innovative resident programming and redevelop its public housing portfolio on pages 64-65.
In an interview with radio program Marketplace for its November 4 story "Apple pledges $2.5 billion to ease California’s housing crisis," CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman told reporter Jack Stewart that Apple's recent $2.5 billion Bay Area affordable housing pledge is an important starting point in addressing the nation's affordable housing shortage, but also noted that much more money is needed to help public housing authorities provide affordable housing for low-income individuals and families. Zaterman told Stewart that public housing needs an injection of $50 to 70 billion to address its massive capital needs backlog.
“The giving back here [by Apple] should be seen as necessary and required,” said Zaterman, “because these corporations are benefiting from the workforce, from the transportation systems, health systems, that are already in their communities.”
Read or listen to Marketplace's story.
In a new op-ed for The Hill, a prominent political newspaper widely read by policymakers, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman underscores the role of public housing authorities (PHAs) as essential partners in local efforts to house those who are particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity, including unsheltered families, veterans, people with disabilities, youth aging out of foster care, victims of domestic violence, and returning citizens. Programs like the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s Stable Homes Stable Schools and the Oakland Housing Authority’s Building Bridges are examples of how PHAs are leveraging their limited resources and local partnerships to create more opportunities for housing stability.
Yet, the President’s proposed FY2020 HUD budget would reduce the agency’s funding by more than 16 percent and slash the public housing operating and capital funds by $4.6 billion, which would seriously impede PHAs’ and their communities’ abilities to address the housing needs of low-income and housing-insecure people.
Though House and Senate appropriators propose modest funding increases in their FY20 spending bills, Zaterman argues that level funding is not enough to meet the growing and urgent demand for housing that is safe and affordable. “We can address the crisis of homelessness in America, and public housing authorities are prepared to help solve it with appropriate resources.”
Part two of Affordable Housing Finance’s special report “Turning Point for Public Housing,” explores tools such as the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that public housing authorities can use to recapitalize and redevelop properties for their residents and communities. In the face of unsustainable federal funding levels, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman tells the magazine that public housing is at a crossroads, but with the right tools, “we could have the portfolio totally recapitalized in 10 years.”
Zaterman was also featured in part one of the series to discuss the impact of the federal disinvestment in public housing. “We have lost about 10,000 units a year from underfunding,” she said. But, “the number of public housing units lost may have slowed to about 8,000 a year, thanks to RAD, in the last couple of years.”
Read the series, which includes interviews with housing advocates, policy experts, and policymakers, online here.
On May 21, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, testified before the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing entitled “Housing in America: Oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Development” where he received pointed questions from the committee Democrats on recent HUD proposals such as rent reform, the non-citizen rule, and HUD’s FY20 budget request which would slash funding for public housing.
After the hearing, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman was asked by USA TODAY reporter Nicholas Wu about the accuracy of Carson’s justification of the non-citizen rule – that, based on Section 214, the Secretary may not support housing for people who are not here legally. Zaterman told Wu that the law “explicitly authorizes both those with eligible and ineligible immigration status to occupy units in ‘covered housing programs.’”
“This is a punitive act,” she said. “Even HUD’s justification laid out the negative impacts of doing this on the households themselves which often include children that are eligible and parents and heads of household who are not.” Read the USA TODAY article.
2020 is shaping up to be a big year for the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) – CMHA will invest $247 million in 2020 to acquire or renovate more than 1,400 units of affordable and workforce housing, and by the end of 2020, CMHA will have converted 100% of its public housing stock to Project-Based Vouchers.
CMHA CEO Charles Hillman told Columbus Business First that creating and renovating mixed-income communities, such as the nearly completed $120 million redevelopment of CMHA’s 450-unit Poindexter Village, is part of the housing authority’s development strategy. "Our business model to (grow) has been the market-rate housing as a generator of revenue at the same time we expand the footprint of affordability," said Hillman. "We're driving full force ahead on that."
In 2019, CMHA closed nine major real estate deals, acquiring 947 housing units at a cost of $98.1 million, and spent $21.4 million on portfolio improvements and new construction.
One of CMHA’s current projects is the addition of 30 housing units to Scholar House, the housing authority’s property intended for youth aging out of foster care, at a cost of $7.8 million. You can learn more about CMHA’s Scholar House in CLPHA’s report “Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success: Cross-Sector Collaborations to Improve Postsecondary Achievement for Students Served by Public Housing Authorities,” which explores PHAs and their education sector partners’ efforts to increase educational attainment among public housing residents and housing- insecure college students in their communities. The report also offers learnings and policy recommendations based on successful housing-education partnerships like those that support the residents of CMHA’s Scholar House.
On Wednesday, November 13, HACLA joined with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Joe Buscaino, and community partners in the fight against homelessness for the opening of A Bridge Home Imperial. This shelter will provide interim housing and supportive services for 100 women and men from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts who were previously homeless before connecting with the facility, giving them a place to receive the support they need to get on the path toward permanent housing.
Located on HACLA property, this A Bridge Home location is directly across the street from HACLA’s Imperial Courts site. This location will also be unique in that it is the only one to have its own dedicated Work Source Center, operated by HACLA. The Salvation Army will lead the efforts in providing mental health, substance abuse, housing, and job readiness services.
In December 2018, the HACLA Board of Commissioners authorized the necessary lease agreement with the City to begin development of the Bridge Home site and HACLA is proud to announce its opening one year later. “For the longest time, this entire corridor of the Imperial Highway has been home to many members of the homeless community… This is an ideal location to serve those in South Los Angeles and to serve those in the Watts Community,” said HACLA President & CEO Doug Guthrie.
Watch LA This Week’s video coverage of the grand opening.
Clockwise from top left: HACLA CEO Doug Guthrie addresses the crowd; Ribbon Cutting for A Bridge Home Grand Opening; Interior of A Bridge Home Imperial; Senator Steven Bradford, HACLA President & CEO, Doug Guthrie, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Salvation Army, HACLA Commissioner Dan Tenenbaum, Peter Lynn, Executive Director of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority & Community Representatives
The Kresge Foundation awarded a $100,000 planning grant to the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership to help increase health equity through housing in Baltimore in collaboration with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The grant will allow the partners to prepare their Healthy Children Demonstration, a program that will link the Housing Choice Voucher program with housing mobility counseling in order to help up to 100 low-income Baltimore families with children to achieve better health and economic outcomes.
“We know that having a stable home in a good community can greatly contribute to improved health for all members of the household, especially children. Helping children in HABC families grow up healthy is a priority for us as an organization,” said HABC CEO and President Janet Abrahams in a press release. “This collaboration between BRHP, HABC and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health will enrich the lives of the residents we serve and ensure healthy, affordable housing alternatives.”
CLPHA’s Membership Spotlight features the outstanding work and achievements of our member public housing authorities - the nation’s largest and most innovative PHAs. Based on interviews with PHA executives, these brief profiles spotlight our members’ initiatives to strengthen their communities and improve life outcomes for their residents. The Membership Spotlight is published in the newsletter, on clpha.org, and on our social media platforms.
The Denver Housing Authority (DHA) knows that improving residents’ health outcomes is critical to improving other life outcomes. "DHA’s mission is not just to provide quality housing but also to provide empowerment and economic opportunity for residents,” said DHA Executive Director Ismael Guerrero in an interview. “Health is probably the most important thing that impacts our residents’ successes with school, work, job stability, and job security. Working with the health sector is the greatest way to impact resident health outcomes.”
That is why DHA and Denver Health, which operates Denver Health Medical Center in the heart of the city, are working together creatively in two new housing communities that will offer health-focused design features as well as on-site healthcare services and resources. DHA’s unique, cross-sector partnership combines their expertise in housing development, management, and resident services with Denver Health’s healthcare and medical knowledge.
When the master developer of a new community at the site of the former St. Anthony Hospital campus in Denver’s West Colfax neighborhood, adjacent to Denver’s Sloan’s Lake park, approached DHA to develop a mixed-use project, the housing authority quickly accepted the opportunity to build a significant amount of affordable housing in this growing, urban, transit-accessible neighborhood. “Building this property, named Vida, not only helped the master developer to fulfill their affordability commitment with the City,” said Guerrero, “but also provided the opportunity to bring back community healthcare services previously offered at the St. Anthony campus.”
Renderings of DHA's Vida community
DHA built Vida as a planned community for housing low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities as well as a ground-floor commercial condo that provides amenities and resources not only for Vida residents but also for the surrounding neighborhood. The commercial condo combines primary healthcare services with DHA’s Senior Activity Center, which made it a great candidate for attracting and leveraging New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC). DHA creatively stitched together a 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), 4% LIHTC, and an NMTC allocation to create a complex funding structure, a process that Guerrero said was the most challenging aspect of the Project’s development.
Another challenge in Vida’s development process, said Guerrero, was figuring out how to build the property at a scale that would make a distinct impact on residents’ health. DHA worked with multiple local partners with synergies to offer a suite of healthcare services and resources on site, including Centura Health, Fresenius Medical Care, and Denver Health. DHA and Denver Health have a strong relationship, said Guerrero, having first worked together in 1993 on La Casa-Quigg Newton Family Health Center adjacent to DHA’s Quigg Newton Homes. Thus, asking Denver Health to join the Vida community was a natural fit. Denver Health will provide primary care and mental health services in an 8,000-square foot space on Vida’s ground floor in partnership with Centura Health. Fresenius Medical Care will operate a 10,000-square foot dialysis treatment center at the other corner of the property.
On November 1, Vida completed construction and DHA is now in the process of leasing to qualified residents, providing 176 new apartment units for low- and very low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities. Alongside Denver Health’s primary and mental healthcare services and Fresenius’ dialysis treatment facility, the community boasts high-quality design, energy efficient features, a rooftop community garden, and a Senior Activity and Wellness Center. Overall, the total project cost $65 million, an investment of which Guerrero, DHA, and all financing partners are very proud. “Sloan’s Lake is one of the fastest transitioning areas in Denver,” said Guerrero, “and for DHA to be able to create new affordable housing for seniors in this exciting new neighborhood was a great achievement.”
On DHA and Denver Health’s other recent collaboration, it was again a mutual interest that brought them together. Denver Health, which treats nearly one in three Denverites annually, cannot discharge a patient from the hospital if the patient has nowhere to go. Homeless and housing-unstable patients must stay in Denver Health beds even after they no longer need treatment, therefore occupying much-needed beds and incurring major expenses on the hospital.
However, Denver Health had a solution in mind – to convert a vacant office building it owns on the hospital campus into an apartment complex with over 100 units that would include single room occupancy (SRO) units to temporarily house housing-unstable discharged patients as they recover from treatment. Denver Health partnered with DHA to employ their affordable housing, real estate, and development expertise to transform the commercial building into housing units, and DHA jumped at the chance to create more affordable housing in the heart of Denver that also offers myriad health benefits to residents.
The hospital is selling DHA the 10-story, 74,000-square foot office building, which DHA is calling 655 Broadway, and granted the housing authority a long-term ground lease on the land for a nominal fee. The community will offer 14 SRO units for discharged patients referred by Denver Health to DHA where the discharged patients will be able to stay until they are ready to move out. A Denver Health case manager will help coordinate care for patients who move into these units. The rest of 655 Broadway’s units will permanently house low-income seniors and disabled individuals. “We saw this as a great opportunity to have seniors and disabled people living next to hospital services,” said Guerrero. “It’s so important for the residents to have the opportunity to live in these health-housing integrated communities with healthcare access right out their front door.”
DHA hopes to complete renovation on 655 Broadway by the end of 2021 and expects the project to cost $18 million. The housing authority will serve as the developer and is bringing in an architect to redesign both the interior and exterior of the building. Guerrero said that given the community’s medically oriented design needs, it’s helpful to have a healthcare partner that can offer guidance. In turn, Denver Health is benefitting from DHA’s knowledge of housing development and complex and mixed-use financing structures. The hospital and the housing authority’s complementary staff capacities allows each partner to do what they do best, Guerrero said.
Rendering of DHA's future 655 Broadway community
DHA’s goals for this project are to grow this partnership with Denver Health into a scalable, replicable model, to show that DHA can create long-term affordability in downtown Denver, and to make this collaboration with Denver Health worth the hospital’s investment. While it costs Denver Health $2,700 per night to house someone in a hospital bed, the hospital told Kaiser Health News that it will cost only about $10,000 to shelter a patient for a year in a traditional housing unit.
Over the course of their collaborations with Denver Health and other healthcare partners, DHA has learned about the health business and their business needs, while their health partners have learned about the affordable housing business, said Guerrero, and DHA and Denver Health’s understanding of each other has deepened over the years. This knowledge sharing results in more cost-effective and impactful health services. "[A]s the housing authority, we know housing, and as Denver Health, they know health and healthcare," Guerrero told Denver 7. "But, really our families and the people that we serve need both housing and healthcare, so by coming together in a common building, we can really provide all the services, all the attention, and the homes that these more unfortunate individuals need, when they are experiencing some kind of health crisis."
DHA’s commitment to resident health and partnership with Denver Health to achieve this goal tracks with CLPHA’s core thesis that housing stability contributes to improved life outcomes, and that cross-sector partnerships among the housing, health, and education sectors strengthen our collective ability to serve the needs of low-income individuals and families. CLPHA works to put these tenets into action through our Housing Is Initiative, which is helping to build a future where systems work together to improve life outcomes. CLPHA is proud to have DHA as a member and we look forward to hearing more about DHA’s work with Denver Health and other healthcare partners in the future.
HUD has announced $99 million in new Mainstream Voucher awards to 285 PHAs including 26 CLPHA members, who received $25.9 million and a combined 2,462 vouchers. CLPHA advocated for larger award amounts in the second competition and we are pleased to see there have been increased allocations of up to 200 vouchers per PHA.
The Mainstream Voucher program provides Housing Choice Vouchers for non-elderly persons with disabilities. This is the second tranche of vouchers that HUD has awarded since receiving $500 million in appropriations for new Mainstream Vouchers between FY 2017-2019 appropriations. HUD is expected to announce a competition for the third and final tranche sometime in 2020.
For those PHAs who received new awards, CLPHA co-hosted a webinar with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) in August 2019 on Mainstream best practices. In addition to presentations from CLPHA and CSH staff, the webinar featured a presentation from the Housing Authority of the City of Austin. A recording of the webinar is available here.
CLPHA is planning a future webinar on the Mainstream Voucher Program during Winter 2019. If you have any suggestions for what your PHA would like to see covered on the webinar, please contact Health Research & Policy Manager Stephen Lucas at slucas@clpha.org.