Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

New York City’s affordable housing plan, Housing New York, aims to provide support to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing across New York City, of which 120,000 are preservation projects.

In 2014, NYHealth and the Kresge Foundation commissioned a report that examined the City’s housing plan, documenting the link between housing conditions and resident health and the disproportionate impact of poor housing conditions on low-income communities. The report also offered recommendations for City agencies to advance residents’ health through the plan. To address recommendations included in the 2014 report, NYHealth awarded Enterprise Community Partners a grant to develop a tool that will help builders focus on health during housing preservation projects to be piloted in buildings located at NYHealth Healthy Neighborhoods Fund sites of East Harlem and Brownsville, as well as the South Bronx.

Under this grant, Enterprise Community Partners developed and piloted the Healthy Green Capital Needs Assessment (HGCNA). The HGCNA tool ensured that affordable housing owners, public agencies, and building specialists understood the range of potential improvements to support resident health. The tool helped those involved in the rehabilitation process evaluate potential health-focused rehabilitation components; develop a proposed scope of costs; identify financing mechanisms and incentives; and develop and execute long-term operations and resident engagement plans.