Congressionally Directed Spending for Construction Projects - - Address: 955 Powell Ave SW , Renton, WA 98057-2908 - Project Director Name: Lisa Yohalem - Contact Phone Numbers (Voice, Fax): 425-277-1311 - Email Address; lyohalem@healthpointchc.org - Website Address, if applicable: healthpointchc.org - List all grant program funds requested in the application, if applicable: $2,000,000 To address the current and unmet healthcare needs of residents in the Redmond service area, HealthPoint will undertake tenant improvements in a construction project that will create a new Redmond Health Center clinic. This will be a 9,800 square foot primary medical and dental care facility located within the Together Center’s six-floor mixed-use affordable housing and human services campus in the city of Redmond, Washington. The Together Center will construct five floors of affordable housing upon a new, 49,000 square foot ground floor human services space that will provide job training, senior services, transportation, advocacy services, and counseling, with HealthPoint providing medical and dental services. Our current, smaller Redmond Health Center’s primary service area consists of 12 zip codes in and around Redmond in north and east King County and south Snohomish County. According to the American Community Survey and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, over 410,000 people reside in these 12 zip codes. Despite the stereotype of north and east King County being void of people in need, tens of thousands of these residents are at a socioeconomic disadvantage and have critical healthcare issues that could be addressed if they had access to high quality primary care. Research has shown that those who reside in low-income households have poor healthcare seeking behaviors and worse health outcomes than the general population. Of the over 410,000 residents, 48,000 are low-income. About 16,000 are uninsured and 32,000 are covered by Medicaid or other public insurance, and yet over 27,000 low-income people in this area are not served by health centers whose purpose is to meet their healthcare needs. About 6.5% of babies had a low birthweight in the Redmond service area, and about 5% of Redmond residents received late prenatal care or none at all. Around 7% of adults in the area have received a diabetes diagnosis, 22% have had high blood pressure, and 23% are obese. About 18% of adults say they have no usual source of healthcare, and 9% have healthcare needs that they do not address because of cost. Healthcare seeking behavior can be affected by limited English proficiency and lack of familiarity with American healthcare systems due to recent immigration. Over 134,000 of the area’s residents over age 5 speak a language other than English at home, and of these 40,000 speak English less than very well. Most spoken among these are Asian languages, followed by Spanish. Further, 129,000 area residents are foreign-born. Most of these—nearly 85,000—were born in Asia. HealthPoint will use HRSA-23-117 funding to construct the new Redmond Health Center clinic within the Together Center. The new clinic will have more medical exam rooms and dental operatories than our current, temporary location about half a mile from the Together Center. Having a community health center within an affordable housing complex provides low-income, hard-working residents with a high quality, low-barrier, readily accessible space to have their healthcare needs met, to the improvement of their physical and mental health, their quality of life, and to the benefit and growth of the surrounding community.
