Intermountain Partners with NewWest Community Capital to Help Finance Social Determinant Initiatives

Intermountain Health and NewWest Community Capital have partnered together to address affordable housing and community development in the intermountain region. This partnership will provide capital to projects that specifically target the social determinants of health in underserved communities, in order to achieve health equity.

NewWest Community Capital is a nonprofit community development financial institution headquartered in Boise, ID and serving the eight states of the Intermountain West. Their core loan products are real-estate loans to support affordable housing projects and other community facilities, all intended to support low-and-moderate income populations.

“NewWest provides the full spectrum of community development finance loans for both affordable housing and community facilities,” said Nicholas Fritz, Intermountain Impact Investing Director. ”Intermountain and NewWest are aligned in our purpose to address the social determinants of health throughout the region. Their strong reputation and track record of providing capital for projects that do just that make them a perfect partner.”

Loans will serve each stage of a project from pre-development, acquisition, construction, and permanent financing. Partners will include health and human service organizations, homeless services agencies, healthcare providers, charter schools, early childhood education organizations, fresh food suppliers, affordable housing developers, and others.

Housing instability is one of the social determinants of health – the non-medical factors that when negatively impacted can have a profound effect on families and communities. Other contributors can be transportation issues, lack of adequate food, interpersonal violence, among others.

“It has been shown in research that where you live, the zip code you are in, effects your life expectancy. We all need to do more to reverse that trend,” said Fritz. “Partnering with great organizations like NewWest makes this possible for our families, our communities and our country.”

Through it’s ecosystem of borrowers, investors, partners and donors, NewWest has provided financing that has created over 4,500 units of quality, affordable housing throughout the Intermountain West.  The investment from Intermountain Health will help to expand the capacity of NewWest to serve more communities, who continue the work to increase housing options for their residents.

“The reason NewWest exists is to increase access to capital for organizations working to build a more just and equitable society. As community-based organizations strive to grow programing and services to help communites thrive, our mission is more important than ever,” said Dutch Haarsma, President, NewWest Community Capital. “We are grateful for the innovative approach of Intermountain Health to improve health outcomes by investing in resources like NewWest.”

You can learn more about Intermountain’s Community Health and Impact Investing efforts here.

You can learn more about NewWest Community Capital here.

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in seven states and additional operations across the western U.S., www.intermountainhealth.org is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 3,900 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called SelectHealth with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.