MISSISSIPPI: Health + Housing Initiative from Gulf Coast Housing Partnership

Health + Housing Initiative from Gulf Coast Housing Partnership

Jackson, MS

The Gulf Coast Housing Partnership’s (GCHP) Health + Housing Initiative connects affordable housing with accessible medical care, data-driven impact analysis, and new sources of capital from health care payors, specifically Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). This idea began as a collaboration between GCHP and a group of Jackson, Mississippi, faith-based and community health organizations as a way to address both the need for accessible, community-based health care and affordable housing.

The initiative aims to bring quality, affordable housing, and much needed access to culturally competent healthcare services to neighborhoods with existing infrastructure, investment, and walkability. The initiative received national recognition in 2020, when GCHP was selected as one of six winners out of 900 applicants in the national Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge sponsored by Wells Fargo and Enterprise Community Partners.

The Health + Housing innovation seeks to change the financing equation by attracting flexible below-market debt from health care payors-while creating robust community-based health systems.