Inspirational music plays. The UnitedHealthcare logo appears over a blue background.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Public-Private Partnership
Bringing affordable housing to Mandera, CA
Views travel over farmland and residential streets. People interview in homes under construction.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Tom Collishaw
President & CEO, Self-Help Enterprises
TOM: The San Joaquin valley starts with some of the most challenging demographics of anywhere in the state of California. We have the lowest incomes. We have the lowest educational achievement. And we have a burgeoning homeless crisis.
A car passes the Madera water tower.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Robert Poythress
County Supervisor, Madera County, CA
ROBERT: We are a community with a lot of farm workers, low income folks, and with the housing costs just skyrocketing, it’s really created more and more need for affordable housing, in addition to housing for behavioral health patients.
TOM: Sugar Pine Village is 52 units of permanently affordable rental housing. Approximately a third of the units will be reserved for people who are coming out of homelessness. They will be supported by a variety of wraparound services including an important partnership with Madera County Behavioral Health Department. So, there will be onsite delivery of services. This will be the living area and it will have a slider out to that front court.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Connie Moreno-Peraza
Director of Behavioral Health Services, Madera County, CA
CONNIE: Housing offers the first step for our clients that we serve to stabilize the different aspects of their life: to have a job, to go to school, to stabilize their families, get their families back if involved with the child welfare system, and to get into the recovery process and to sustain it.
Tom consults blueprints.
TOM: And then you’ve got a second office.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Kevin Kandalaft
CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of CA
KEVIN: UnitedHealthcare was a principal investor in this project. So we put in a little over 11 million dollars to bring this project to life. It is a collaboration with Madera County and their behavioral health department, as well as other organizations like Self-Help Enterprises that really bring this project together.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Steven Montes
City Council Member, Madera, CA
STEVEN MONTES: It was a huge investment. They’re the largest private investor, so without that, who knows where this project would be right now.
KEVIN: We find that people are much more likely to engage in healthcare when it is available in their community, close by, easy to access, easy to get to, provided by a trusted partner. So by bringing it here, into the community where they’ll actually be residing, literally the same complex, we believe we’re taking a critical step towards closing that gap.
CONNIE: It increases their compliance. It reduces their barriers of transportation, or childcare, etcetera, so I see this as a great opportunity to be a multi-service center or a one-stop shop. As far as public assistance, our in-house services in substance abuse, social services could also go look at it, public health, we have all those services that can help them achieve health in a very holistic approach.
KEVIN: Access to affordable housing can also disproportionately affect communities of color. So by bringing these types of solutions, it’s really beginning to zero in on solutions that advance health equity to directly address a problem and create long-term sustainable solutions for the communities. So addressing the social determinants, that’s how it comes together.
TOM: This is the second project we’re doing with UnitedHealthcare. There’s been virtually no turnover since the move-in. People have come into that environment and they’re thriving. And so UnitedHealthcare, they have been a critical new partner for us.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Steven Henry
Director, Treasury Management Team, UnitedHealth Group
STEVEN HENRY: One of the things that we’ve learned over the last several years is the importance of investing with outcomes. We’ve done 600 million dollars in investments over a seven-year period in these types of investments across the country, with the emphasis on not just affordable housing, but affordable housing with supportive services.
ROBERT: UnitedHealthcare played a unique role. The fact that they would help invest and take things to the next level shows that they are looking at the big picture, what it’s gonna take to help rehabilitate rather than just treat somebody temporarily, what’s really gonna get them back into society, and stay off the government rolls and onto the payrolls.
KEVIN: The construction team, the development crew, it’s just been a remarkable job. Everybody’s very excited. We’re anxious for people to start moving in.
STEVEN MONTES: In the short-term it’ll solve some housing needs, but also in the long-term it’ll help people be successful moving forward with their health and safety.
CONNIE: UnitedHealthcare is our champion in this initiative, and we are very grateful and thankful.
Blue ribbons swirl over a white background and become the UnitedHealthcare logo.
ON SCREEN TEXT: UnitedHealthcare
