Employer-Assisted Housing by MSHDA
https://www.michigan.gov/mshda/develo...
[TRANSCRIPT] So we are standing very proximate to the hospital here in the city of Saginaw for the first home that with a collaboration with Saginaw Habitat for Humanity and MSHDA have done a ribbon cutting on a new home.
Today we set the first of two homes on its foundation. The prefabricated homes that you see before us would not be possible without the generosity and resolute vision of Covenant HealthCare and other funders that have made today a reality.
Project came about because we were ready to start working in Covenant Neighborhood again. We called Covenant HealthCare and said, "Hey, would you like to be title sponsor of neighborhood revitalization?" Which literally meant just helping us paint homes and go from street to street. And instead, Covenant said, "Let's sit down and talk. We have other additional things in mind. We have been tearing down houses now for too long and we want to see what else we can do."
Twist my arm, you want to build, to help us build homes? Of course.
If you would have ever told me that as a hospital CEO, a person dedicated to medical care, that we'd be doing something related to housing, I probably would not have thought that that was gonna be the case. But in this instance, when you take a look at social determinants for health and some of the things that we're grappling with here in the city of Saginaw, whether that's chronic illness, obesity, maternal / infant health, et cetera, you can't really do everything that you need to do if you don't look more deeply at the social determinants of health, one of which definitely is housing. Housing security is a fundamental thing that people need to have accomplished so that they can focus on health and wellness overall.
So we're happy to see that businesses are getting involved. In fact, we're using this and touting this model throughout the whole state to encourage other businesses to follow Covenant's example. We have an Employer-Assisted Housing Guide, which is brand new, in which this project is called out specifically as an example of how other businesses can get involved. The best type of development is done with community and not to community and this is a great example of that.
It's just been a sheer pleasure to work with these teams and just to see the overall support and enthusiasm for this project and I hope it catches on like fire across the state of Michigan, specifically here in Saginaw.