The link between housing and health care has been getting national recognition over the past few years. And it's become a focus for Community Housing Partners (CHP) in Christiansburg, Virginia.
"I remember being in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2015, when NeighborWorks was hosting an NTI (NeighborWorks Training Institute)," says Angie Roberts-Dobbins, vice president of resident services for CHP. It was the first time she heard the term "social determinants of health," a reference to the conditions in the environments in which people live, learn, work and play. "We've been talking about it ever since."
This May, the NeighborWorks network organization held a ribbon cutting for a health suite on the ground floor of J. Van Story Branch apartments with the goal of improving social determinants of health by providing access to health care and education for residents. The health suite will also offer screening services and fitness activities.
The first step in the plan to bring a healthy lifestyle to the 20-story high-rise? "Building trust," says Roberts-Dobbins.
When CHP purchased J. Van Story with its 350 apartment homes in 2018, the building was suffering from some of the same problems as other nearby complexes. Repairs needed to be made. There were problems with rodents and bedbugs. As CHP has worked to improve conditions, the nonprofit partnered with Central Baltimore Partnership, Johns Hopkins, MedStar Good Samaritan and MedStar Union Memorial Hospitals and others to focus on health. The building serves senior and non-elderly individuals with disabilities.
Johns Hopkins University students had already surveyed more than 150 residents of J. Van Story Branch and found that just as maintenance to the building had sometimes been deferred, residents themselves often deferred health care, Roberts-Dobbins shares. Resident health continued to loom large in CHP's discussions.
"It's part of our strategic plan," says Kim Strahm, CHP's vice president for corporate development. At first, they hadn't considered the possibility of embedding a health suite in the building. But when Central Baltimore Partnership and the JSVB Tenants Council suggested on-site services, they jumped on it. "It aligned perfectly with our priorities."
"And we had the space," adds Roberts-Dobbins. They set aside 1,000 square feet and began the collaborative project.
Because CHP's headquarters isn't in the same city as J. Van Story Branch, the largest redevelopment project in the nonprofit's history, it was important to have someone in the community serve as "health-suite quarterback." That became Central Baltimore Partnership, whose mission is to galvanize the renaissance of Central Baltimore. The organization brought more partners to the table while CHP focused on development. 
"We're interested in creating healthy outcomes," Strahm explains. Two factors that can help lead to those outcomes: including residents in the discussions and finding the right partners. Being a part of the Health Outcomes Demonstration Project, which included 10 NeighborWorks organization, was influential in teaching CHP to assess and measure health outcomes. "It taught us to be more intentional when surveying residents, to find out more about their health-related needs," says Strahm.
Working toward a goal
According to Roberts-Dobbins, the ultimate goal with the health suite is to improve the quality of life for residents. "A big indicator would be if residents were able to stay in J. Van Story Branch for as long as they wanted with the resources in place to keep them safe and healthy as they age."
In time, they would like to duplicate the project, and to make it a model for other housing providers. They are starting slow, with some mental health counseling and programming like line dancing and chair yoga. In the months ahead, they will add more. "The world is our oyster, of where we can go with this," Roberts-Dobbins says. "We want J. Van Story Branch to be our flagship property when we talk about health and housing a year from now. We would love it if people were knocking on our doors to take a tour."
Romi Hall, NeighborWorks' director of Healthy Homes and Communities, adds, "CHP's work in developing J. Van Story Branch Apartments and bringing in an on-site health suite highlights the incredible work network organizations across the country are doing to improve health access and create better health outcomes for residents in community." The development is particularly significant given how a lack of access to health care and health services impacted many residents during COVID-19.
"As we start to forge ahead out of COVID, CHP's project highlights how health and housing partnerships can support not only community health, but also community resilience," Hall says. "Residents have a safe, healthy place to live with the supports they need right within their building. At NeighborWorks we hope to see many more of these partnerships develop between the health, housing and community sectors to achieve greater impact in communities together."
07/14/2021
