Native-focused health care and affordable housing development breaks ground
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The Native American Community Clinic held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday at the Minneapolis American Indian Center for a future 30,000-square-foot health care and housing development.
The clinic’s executive officer and president Antony Stately says the project will serve as a model for transforming health care for Native American people.
Stately, who has led the clinic for the past decade, grew up in the south Minneapolis neighborhood where the clinic is located. He said the project is a “love song” to the community that raised him.
Stately said the clinic’s new housing component will help to meet the most pressing needs of Native American people in Minneapolis.
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“This is going to be a living, breathing thing that we are really amplifying in the next iteration of where we're going as a clinic,” said Stately. “We see how critically important housing is for stability and for well-being.”
Stately says “houselessness” is the single biggest non-medical factor that shapes the clinic’s ability to improve health outcomes within the community.
The 2023 Minnesota Homeless Study by the Wilder Foundation showed that 18 percent of Native American adults living in the Twin Cities metro area were experiencing homelessness. Data from the study also showed more than 75 percent of people experiencing homelessness have significant health issues statewide.
In south Minneapolis near where the clinic is located, Stately estimates one out of every three Native Americans in the area lacks stable housing.
Once completed, the new development will offer more than 80 apartments, many of them large enough for families. Most will be affordable to those earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income. One-third of the units will be considered “deeply affordable” for those earning at or less than 30 percent of the average median income. Twenty of the units will be designated for people living with disabilities and those who have experienced homelessness.
NACC is partnering with Twin Cities-based Wellington Management, Inc. to build and manage the new development. President David Wellington addressed those who gathered to celebrate the project.
“This milestone, it's groundbreaking. It's meant to help us take stock of all the effort, that committed dedication and faith in the immense vision for this community that Dr. Stately and NACC’s team are creating, a vision that we share,” said Wellington.
Wellington Management is a commercial real estate company that has partnered with community groups on several projects which offer affordable housing options.
The project has raised $55 million through investment from public, private and philanthropic partners.
UnitedHealth Group is one of many investors in the new clinic. CEO of UnitedHealthcare Minnesota Brett Edelson says affordable housing is an important factor in improving people’s basic health.
“When somebody has access to stable housing, and food and transportation and child care and job training that has a huge impact on their health,” Edelson said.
Edelson said the Native American Community Clinic could be considered an example for others to follow.
“It represents a really strong connection between not only housing and health that we've touched on, but between culture and care, and really between what's possible and what is needed,” Edelson said.
Stately says the next iteration of the clinic's work will focus on a health and housing model — creating a sense of place by centering Indigenous health, culture and knowledge.
“We want our new place to be a place where people know that they can come when they're not feeling well. They know that they can come there when they're feeling really well. They know they can come there to feel renewed,” Stately said.
The clinic plans to consolidate four separate sites into one facility. The new clinic will offer medical, dental, behavioral health, and substance use treatment services.
The clinic hopes to serve as many as 3,000 additional patients each year when the building opens.
The new building will be located on the south side of Franklin Avenue between 11th and 13th Ave. South. Construction is expected to be completed in the next two years.