Housing Is Healthcare
Housing is Healthcare Fund
Health Plans know that housing is healthcare. Beyond a roof and walls, a home can help Arizonans improve their long-term health outcomes. This is why AzAHP’s member companies invested their own corporate funds to launch a dedicated housing grant fund in 2020 to address the state’s critical shortage in rental units, especially with housing for Medicaid-eligible individuals. This fund, the first statewide initiative aligned with the Home Matters movement, focused on a new generation of affordable housing, connected communities, and healthier individuals, families, and economies. By leveraging government, philanthropy and national private investment, the Fund intends to address housing needs at scale, adding critical housing units to a system that has left far too many unsheltered, while broadening the mindset of housing developers beyond the four walls of a home.
How Did We Get Here?
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment Systems (AHCCCS - Arizona Medicaid) Health Plans understood that housing is healthcare and made a major commitment to the health of our state's most vulnerable populations.
We came together to create and commit funds to the Housing is Healthcare Fund, an important development in Arizona affordable housing. The fund was created as a collaborative model for increasing affordable housing and improving health outcomes through innovative public policy, cross-sector collaboration and leveraging resources.
Leveraging resources in a coordinated effort adds affordable housing units that meet the needs of their members. They will be located in walkable neighborhoods where residents have easy access to public transportation that leads to job centers, education opportunities, medical care and healthy food choices.
Arizona’s health care and community development sectors designed and activated a unique grant and debt fund to create more and better affordable housing. The goal was to build additional units that strategically address the social determinants of health for AHCCCS members and provide opportunities for low-income residents to live well in the essential, equitable senses of the term.
Health Plans embraced the idea to commit a significant portion of their community reinvestment dollars into what’s now called the Housing is Healthcare Fund for grants that support projects that meet criteria related to social determinants of health. Over the life of the fund the MCO’s have contributed is over $10 million.
The aligned strategy of the statewide fund, with its focus on social determinants of health and with a healthy community framework, not only will help address the affordable housing shortage but will encourage affordable housing development that serves health plan members in ways that help reduce unnecessary use of emergency departments and reduce the number of hospitalizations.
Who Made It Happen?
THE FUNDERS AND LEADERS
How Does It Work?
Each spring, Housing is Healthcare Fund members individually pledge a portion of their profits to go into the pooled fund. LISC Phoenix collects and manages those funds on behalf of the Consortium.
LISC markets the Fund and manages a custom application portal that is open for affordable housing developers each summer after LIHTC awards are announced and again in the winter, if available funds remain. LISC reviews applications to ensure only eligible shovel-ready projects from experienced developers move forward for consideration.
A team of housing specialists from each health plan independently read and score applications with a focus on SDOH impact and Fund alignment. Then they come together to discuss the applications and recommend awards.
After approval from the Fund Governance Committee, LISC moves forward awarding and servicing grants. At key stages during construction and after opening, an evaluator contracted by LISC on behalf of the Fund meets with grantees to discuss and measure the impact of their projects, offering accountability for the individual projects and learnings for the Fund.
This cycle repeats each year as the Health Plans renew their commitments and replenish the Fund.
What’s The Bottom Line?
The Housing is Healthcare Fund invests in projects that are positioned to demonstrate measurable and positive outcomes for individuals and families with low-to-moderate income, veterans, seniors, people who are homeless, people with disabilities, individuals involved in the justice system and those eligible for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) support.
The Fund seeks projects that demonstrate a deliberate connection to community assets, cross-sector partnerships, equitable outcomes based on housing justice, all as demonstrated by genuine community engagement. It prioritizes projects statewide that are located near healthy food retailers, employment centers, active transportation facilities and public transit, schools, childcare, senior centers, medical facilities, public libraries, parks, community centers and places of worship.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE PARTNER
THE EDUCATION PARTNER
Read about the funded affordable housing projects:
Other highlights
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The fund attracted an additional $2.25 million in State Fiscal Recovery Funds (SFRF) from the Arizona Department of Housing deployed to 5 projects specifically for the production/preservation of housing for victims of domestic violence and/or homeless.
$10.3 million deployed to fund gaps in 24 projects
