Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Fiscal Year 2023 Capital Assistance for Hurricane Response and Recovery Efforts (CARE) - Banyan Community Health Center (d/b/a) Banyan Health System (“Banyan”) proposes the Little Havana Community Health Center Project (LHCHC), which will increase Banyan’s service capacity by 37.9% (to more than 20,000 patients per year). Banyan requests $490,000 to demolish two existing buildings at 3800 and 3850 Flagler Street, Miami, FL (whose 26,000 square feet (sf) of administrative and clinical space is inadequate) and build a $35 million, 52,000 sf, comprehensive, new state-of-the-art health center, able to serve 5500 previously unserved patients, an increase of 37.9% over current enrollment. Banyan is negotiating for funds to complete the project from New Market Tax Credits, a Congressional earmark and commercial sources the balance of required funding. Little Havana is the vibrant heart of Miami, FL’s Cuban-exile community, a center of social, cultural and political activity. Once a thriving Jewish community, today Little Havana refers to the neighborhood just west of Downtown Miami, running 2.5 miles west of the Miami River. The population of Little Havana was 85% Cuban as late as 1870; today it is more than 98% Latino, though the current population includes large numbers of immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic (U.S. Census, 2022). Despite its 19 FQHCs, in the Miami-Dade/Broward County service areas, Banyan remains the sole provider of culturally competent and sensitive, fully integrated health and behavioral health care services in South Florida. All Banyan’s clinical staff are bilingual. Little Havana’s is located within a HRSA-designated Health Professional Shortage Area that requires 36.5 additional primary care physicians—HPSA Primary Care score=21; its Dental Health score is 25 and its mental health score is 21 (both out of 25). Over the past few years, Banyan has reengineered its services, implementing a patient-centered medical home that features integrated primary care with warm hand-offs between services, behavioral health care, dental services and robust case management and is ready to serve the 93.5% of Little Havana residents that are not currently engaged in care (Banyan’s penetration among the uninsured and low-income residents of Little Havana is 13.1%--which is better, but still not adequate to address the needs the target population. Banyan will utilize the proposed funding to demolish the two buildings currently at their Little Havana site (3800 and 3850 Flagler Street, Miami, FL.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).