A new model for integrating housing and health care will open this summer in Portland, Ore.
Central City Concern (CCC), a developer and operator of affordable housing as well as a designated Federally Qualified Health Center for the homeless, is ramping up its health-care approach along with housing in the $52 million Blackburn Center.
The six-story development will include a 40,000-square-foot integrated health clinic and 51 units of respite-care transitional housing, which will allow people to discharge out of the hospital into a safe setting to recover more completely and receive intensive case management to solve the problem of lack of medical care and housing. Above that will be a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) project with 80 units of transitional housing for people overcoming substance abuse and 34 units of permanent housing for households at 55% of the area median income. Primary care, behavioral care, substance abuse treatment, case management, and employment services will be provided.
Courtesy Ankrom Moisan Architecture
Central City Concern executives believe combining housing and health care will lead to better for outcome for residents.
“This is our 40th anniversary as an organization, but this is the first time where everything we do and offer will be available under one roof. That’s really the exciting part here,” says Sean Hubert, chief housing and strategy officer with CCC. “For us as an organization, it gives us the opportunity to pilot a new way of doing business, and I think it gives us an opportunity to put the client at the center of our work and to align and build the services around the client.”
The Blackburn Center eventually will serve about 3,000 patients annually and will actively integrate the services that the individuals need. A coordinated team effort also will help break down silos and lead to better outcomes for patients.
“Integration is a buzzword in health care. It allows a client to access a whole range of services to best reach their goals, especially folks experiencing homelessness or marginal housing. It allows us as a team to collaborate for a client,” says Dr. Eowyn Rieke, director of the Blackburn Center. “We want to design the services around the needs of our clients to keep them engaged. We literally will be able to walk someone down the hall to the services.”
The development was designed by Ankrom Moisan and is being built by Walsh Construction. It is on track to open the first week of July.
Critical to the development is a $21.5 million investment from area health organizations Adventist Health Portland, CareOregon, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Legacy Health, Oregon Health & Science University, and Providence Health & Services-Oregon.
The project also was financed with LIHTCs allocated by Oregon Housing and Community Services and New Markets Tax Credits allocated by the Low Income Investment Fund and CSH. U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp. is the tax credit investor. Additional partners include Portland Housing Bureau; Multnomah County; Oregon Health Authority and Metro; and foundation backers Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Community Foundation, Collins Foundation, Hearst Foundation, Wells Fargo Housing Foundation, PGE Foundation, Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Harbourton Foundation, and The Standard.