We’ve known for years that housing is the solution to homelessness—and that housing is health care. Yet, we’ve witnessed a sweeping disinvestment in affordable housing across the country.

To provide the housing our clients need to get healthy and stable, we’ve set an ambitious strategic goal to design and implement sustainable business models for affordable housing development and supportive housing.

This strategic goal led to a host of questions we’re in the process of working through. For instance, what types of housing do our clients most need? What makes certain housing models more financially viable than others? What role should we play in developing housing?

This summer our Board of Directors formed a Housing Committee to guide us as we find our place in affordable and supportive housing. The committee will advise us on sustainable business models for housing development and permanent supportive housing. Meet them for yourself, and see what they’re envisioning so far…

Dan McCarthy, Housing Committee Chair

Executive Director, Episcopal Housing Corporation

“Only through the dedicated support from case managers and peer counselors can we achieve stability in the housing status of the folks we hope to house. Health Care for the Homeless is the preeminent provider of services to recently housed, formerly homeless residents. I believe a strategic relationship between Health Care for the Homeless and housing developers can bear incredible fruit in addressing the issue, and I am happy to provide my expertise to the committee around housing development. I see the agency becoming a partner in ownership with entities that develop affordable and permanent supportive housing. It is uniquely positioned to have a major impact in housing the most vulnerable citizens of Baltimore because of its expertise with client services and funding sources not available to many developers.”

Geoff Glazer

Senior Vice President of National Development, Kimco Realty Corporation

“We have good, broad experience on the committee that will make smart decisions to move the agency’s housing work forward. The agency has always believed having your own home is vital to a person’s overall health. With the new strategic plan, we’re going to have a really interesting debate about our role in housing development. We could partner with organizations that are experts in residential housing for instance, or we could get into the residential housing market directly. I’m looking forward to helping the agency figure it out.”

Louis Kiang

Development Director, Enterprise Homes

“My background expertise is in real estate development and financing and my current work with Enterprise Homes has opened my eyes to the number of people in need of help. I support the mission of Health Care for the Homeless—it is quite complementary to what I do for a living. I thought I might be able to make some small difference. There is an opportunity to partner with developers that, by definition, do all the real estate portion but are lacking in the skills, resources and contacts for the provision of health care services for people in need. The agency can provide those services that the developers don’t have.”

George Kleb

Executive Director, Housing & Community Development, Bon Secours Baltimore Health System

“I joined the committee because I’m already partnering with Health Care for the Homeless at Bon Secours New Shiloh and am looking forward to developing creative ways to address the housing crisis. I envision the agency’s work further integrating health care and housing development and creating more partnerships with like-minded organizations.”

Willy Moore

President, Southway Builders

“Affordable housing has been a priority of Southway Builders since our inception. We were the general contractor for the Sojourner Place apartments, and were excited by the prospect of helping find more housing for the City’s homeless population. At Health Care for the Homeless, I hope we can build a model that can be replicated on a large scale to help solve this terrifically difficult problem. Given the substantial need and the agency’s position as a leader in homeless services, I hope they can become a chief provider of housing as well. The marriage of housing and supportive services, managed under a single roof, will offer the most efficient outcomes and highest quality of services to a population that is deeply in need of assistance.”

Joanne Pollak

Retired Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief of Staff, Johns Hopkins Medicine

“Housing is integrally related to the health of our clients, but there is woefully little affordable housing available. The idea of building trust with the developer community and seeing if together we could make some progress in this area is an exciting challenge. Also exciting is seeing what other non-profits already do with respect to affordable housing and exploring whether we can partner with them to advance our goal. The agency could be a catalyst for partnerships with those who develop affordable housing as part of their primary mission."

Linda Sorden

Senior Loan Officer, Enterprise Community Loan Fund

“I view this as an opportunity to collaborate, discuss, and learn with and from like-minded people on two pressing issues facing Baltimore: creating access to quality affordable housing and the impact that safe affordable housing has on health—both physical and mental health. I would love to see the Housing Committee help the agency implement and make as a part of its mission the goal of developing affordable housing on a larger scale. I hope Health Care for the Homeless will become a developer of affordable housing and be at the forefront of advocating for health and housing as if it were one word.”

George Watson

Consultant, BW Partners LLC

“We need to find a sustainable model that allows Health Care for the Homeless to increase the amount of affordable housing in the city so we can prove that housing is health care and delivers better outcomes. This will become more and more important as both private and public payers search for providers who deliver the best value to their clients. I hope the agency becomes one of the leaders to create a sustainable model to break the silo of health care delivery and housing.”

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