This study is part of OC/IE ULI’s 2021 Building Healthy Places Initiative which led to a meeting on “Health, Healing and Affordable Housing” on January 26, 2023. Breakout groups at the meeting discussed the critical components of healing centers, funding, and stakeholder support. The discussion was guided by the social determinants and vital conditions of health framework(s) that go beyond the traditional biomedical model to examine the health and wellbeing impacts of social, political, and cultural factors such as economic stability, health care access, transportation, education, housing, and the built environment.

The discussions yielded several insights on the role of housing, particularly the importance of supportive services that address both physical and mental health onsite. Participants emphasized the need to be creative with respect to funding and “stacking funding” as different sources (e.g. tax credits, grants, private capital, govt. funds) each have drawbacks but can be combined or stacked to develop different components (e.g. buildings, infrastructure, services, equipment, etc.) of wellness centers. Attendees underscored the importance of evidence-based approaches that combine secondary data (e.g. Census, Pt. in Time, Health Assessments and Utilization) with primary data gleaned through consistent community outreach during design and implementation phases.

Read the full report to understand the key findings of the report as well as next steps.