An ambitious development that will blend a health-care center serving homeless and at-risk families with 78 units of affordable housing has broken ground in Denver.
The project will feature the Stout Street Health Center, which will replace the aging Stout Street Clinic. It will integrate medical and mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and social services. Specialized services for homeless children and families will also be incorporated.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is also developing the Renaissance Stout Street Lofts that will have 50 supportive housing units chronically homeless individuals, families and youths plus 28 apartments targeted to households earning no more than 30 percent, 40 percent, and 50 percent of the area median income.
"Every person we see has a devastating story of a job loss, family tragedy, childhood trauma, untreated addiction, or illness—the most common precursors to homelessness," said Coalition President John Parvensky. "This development will open the door to hope for 17,000 adults and children in the Health Center and 78 household in the Lofts."
Stout Street is among several new developments that will be linking health-care facilities with housing. In Chicago, The Community Builders, Granite Development Corp., and UJIMA are building Oakwood Shores Terraces and Medical Center, which will feature 48 housing units and 21,000 square feet of space on the first two floors leased to Mercy Housing. In San Francisco, BRIDGE Housing developed The Coronet, which has 150 affordable senior apartments and is home to a new Institute on Aging facility that includes different services, including a primary-care clinic.
The Denver project will create more than 75 construction jobs and 70 full-time permanent health-care jobs, and provide job continuity for more than 100 current clinic positions. It is also expected to generate more than $70 million in direct and indirect economic activity in Denver.
The Lofts are financed with a combination of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), private equity investment, HOME Investment Partnerships Program financing from the city of Denver and the Colorado State Division of Housing, Federal Home Loan Bank funds, and construction financing through U.S. Bank. The Health Center is financed through New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) combining NMTC equity, leveraged financing, foundation and private donations, and Health Resources and Services Administration capital funding.
U.S. Bank, a longtime partner of the Coalition, is providing two separate financing packages for the $38 million development, including an $11 million construction loan and nearly $13 million of LIHTC equity to finance the residential housing, and an $8.5 million loan and nearly $6 million in NMTC equity to support the development of the Health Center. U.S. Bank structured the tax credit investments through its community investment subsidiary, U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., partnering with Building America CDE on the NMTC financing. U.S. Bank also allocated an award of NMTCs in support of the project through its own community development entity, USBCDE.
Building America CDE is a subsidiary of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.
The Coalition said that a $5 million capital campaign is in progress to raise the remaining funds needed to complete construction. The Colorado Health Foundation, the Anschutz Foundation, the Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation, Caring for Colorado Foundation, Gates Family Foundation, Hearst Foundations, and other foundations and individual donors have helped the campaign reach 78 percent of its goal.
