$84 Million Invested in San Diego
As the holidays emerge, conversations increasingly mention shopping and family. During such a happy time of year, we loath knowing some people in our community cannot afford the luxuries of the holidays. For some San Diegans, the holidays are the last thing to touch their thoughts.
They’re worrying about how to afford their health.
The US Department of health considers some parts of San Diego County Medically Underserved Areas (MUA). This means that this part of the community is disadvantaged by the inability to pay, access care, access comprehensive healthcare. These disparities exist for all imaginable reasons: race, religion, language group or social status. While the news is enough to give us goosebumps, especially over the holidays, hope arrives just in time. The San Diego Civic center is ringing in new opportunities for our community, and just time time for the new year.
New San Diego Development
The advantage of the tag Medically Underserved opens the door to enormous developments. We are eligible for government grants that create new organizations and structures within San Diego. Recent new developments include The Rural Health Clinic (RHC) Certification, Migrant Health Centers, Community Health Centers, and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and FQHC Look‐Alikes.
In 2017, Civic San Diego (SD) applied for a New Markets Tax Credit through the federal government and received the national award. The tax credit promotes such developments. Eventually, the public resources benefit the public by creating quality jobs, providing health care facilities to low-income group, enabling small businesses to grow, and providing essential services to the poor. To ensure transparency and clarity to all, the Civic SD generates a report on the development status of all their ongoing projects.
Civic SD Steps Up
Reese A. Jarrett, President of CivicSD said, “Civic San Diego is always looking for new, innovative ways to bring capital investment into our urban communities that is not only going to help these communities grow but also make a difference in the quality of life for the people who live there.” He also added, “The New Markets Tax Credit program is an excellent example of successfully executing this goal. Every time these projects create a new full-time, living wage job or provide services to families in need, we are reminded of the importance of our work and the role Civic San Diego can play in helping our underserved neighborhoods flourish.”
CivicSD also received equity investments from the banks to the tune of $84 million for 4 of their approved projects:
- Copley-Price Family YMCA: Focuses on childcare and camp scholarships to children from low-income family
- Family Health Centers’ Health Information Technology Education and Career Center: Focuses on providing healthcare facilities to economically backward class and higher wages to full-time employees.
- Urban Corps of San Diego County: Focuses on providing placements to graduates, enhance environment by planting trees and cleaning litter, and providing on-site charter school for low-income groups.
- Jackie Robinson Family YMCA: Focuses on creating construction and pre-development jobs, and reserving majority of these for the low-income and underserved communities.
But wait, there’s more
This impressive collection of $84 million received even more appreciation from the federal government in the form of another award of $50 million. The massive $134 million is an awe-inspiring figure for cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, which haven’t received this level of investment over the past four years. It’s especially important to our fellow San Diegans in need of public help.
As the holiday’s flood gates open, all our community looks to give the best of themselves. For some, this is easier than for others. But new developments bring hope for the whole community that someday we can provide affordable care and to all.