NYC Health + Hospitals is investing further in affordable housing on land it owns in a bid to improve the health outcomes of some of its most vulnerable patients, according to a March 17 Affordable Housing Finance report.
The New York City-based system, which has already built an 89-unit complex on its Woodhull campus in Brooklyn that opened in 2019, is now planning an adjacent 93-unit project. Overall, NYC Health + Hospitals wants to build a further 650 affordable homes for vulnerable New Yorkers over the next five years.
Currently, the system has 1,600 apartments in 10 buildings on its land, and further investment is directly linked to both its work with homeless people in the city and to highlighting the link between housing and healthcare.
Adults experiencing homelessness are three times more likely to visit hospitals and emergency departments than the general population, the report said.
"Redeveloping our underutilized publicly owned land adjacent to our health care facilities creates a true nexus between health and housing," Leora Jontef, head of housing for the health system, told Affordable Housing Finance.
In 2022, NYC Health + Hospitals provided care for almost 50,000 homeless patients.