Partnering with Hospitals to Fund Supportive Housing Developments
The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) is working directly with hospitals to develop more supportive housing throughout New Jersey.
NJHMFA Executive Director Charles A. Richman recently spoke with Monarch Housing Staff going into the details about the recently launched HospitalPartnership Subsidy Program and its goals.
The $12 million Hospital Partnership Subsidy Program was created after the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) released research suggesting that providing supportive housing leads to health care and government cost savings. The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) reports that supportive housing results in nearly 50% fewer emergency department visits, days spent in hospitals, and detox visits.
NJHMFA is partnering with New Jersey hospitals to develop affordable and supportive housing in close proximity to hospitals. Every dollar that hospitals in the program contribute to developments will be matched by NJHMFA for up to $4 million. NJHMFA, which administers the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, will contribute 4 percent credits to the projects
Each project is expected to create 60 to 80 new apartments. Richman highlighted that a significant portion of the apartments in these developments will go to low-income people in addition to providing affordable housing for families including potentially hospital employees as well.
Currently, four supportive housing developments are part of the initiative. Richman highlighted one of the projects, which is an apartment complex in Paterson proposed by Saint Joseph’s Health. This project is currently in the design stage. There are other developments in the pipeline in different areas of New Jersey that will provide needed housing to various populations.