Submitted by Benjamin T Turner on
On Monday, June 12, 2023, Rebecca Dillow, Clinch-Powell's director of strategy & development, spoke at the Ballad Health Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) Public Meeting hosted by the TN Department of Health at Northeast State Community College.
During her three minute comment period, Rebecca shared the following:
'Hello everyone. My name is Rebecca Dillow. I work with Clinch-Powell RC&D. We are members of Fahe which is a group of non-profit housing builders that serve all of Appalachia by building and repairing homes and also creating opportunities for more hard working folks here in Appalachia to become homeowners.
I’m here today to share our experience of working with Ballad Health. Back in 2019, several Fahe members from SWVA and East TN were invited to the Strong Accountable Care Community conversations and realized that housing was not identified as a Social Driver of Health. We approached Ballad Health and were met with open arms to collaborate with them. Our partnership with Ballad has helped us to continue our work during a time when we all see the shortage of safe, healthy and affordable housing for working families. Ballad has been extremely helpful to us to fulfill our missions as non-profit housing builders; however, there is still a shortage of housing and lots of families are struggling to find adequate housing right here in East TN. We appreciate the positive working relationship with Ballad and their willingness to continue this partnership so that we can continue to provide more housing for Tennesseans and folks throughout Appalachia.
Fahe has been working hard these last few years here in TN to advocate for more funding for workforce housing. We see parents daily who are struggling to find stable housing for their children. Not because they aren’t working. It’s because there simply is a shortage of housing they can actually afford.
If we want to keep realizing the benefits of this approach to health; we also have to invest in smart housing solutions. And right now, we’re really short on that front. Fahe is working on the issue and we welcome the support from health care in making the case for a robust investment in healthy, affordable homes.
We also want to encourage other health care systems to partner with their local non-profit housing development organizations as they are most likely looking to align health and housing in a similar way that we have here in TN.
Thank you for your time and for allowing me to speak today."
We appreciate Katy Stigers of Fahe, pictured here with Rebecca, for coming out and supporting her and taking the picture of Rebecca speaking at the podium. To learn more about the work of Fahe and how Clinch-Powell is involved, you can visit the Fahe website at www.fahe.org.
Want to see our work in action?
Fahe is hosting the Making Housing Work for Working Families events on June 28th! Depending on what part of TN you live in, you are more than welcome to come join us and learn about the housing solutions being offered by Clinch-Powell and other Fahe members throughout the state.
Click here to register for this FREE event -> https://fahe.org/members/making-housing-work-for-working-families/
