BuzzHouse: Fostering healthcare and housing through relationships as a community investment

Baker Tilly's podcast series specifically for professionals in the multifamily housing industry.

On this episode, hosts Don Bernards and Garrick Gibson sit down with three industry titans: Nora Bloch, Kevin Progar and Tracy Kaufman to discuss the hot topic of intersecting healthcare and housing. Our guests dive into their respected companies’ strategies on partnerships with hospitals and health organizations to finance affordable housing in their communities. The goal of building a bridge between health institutions and affordable housing is to upstream community investment in social determinants of health to build relationships within the community they serve. Bloch, Progar and Kaufman also share success stories, examples of collaborations, and challenges they’ve faced.

Special guests

Nora Bloch, Initiative Director, Health and Housing | Center for Community Investment (CCI)

Nora Bloch is the initiative director for Health and Housing at the Center for Community Investment. In this role, she focuses on building and deepening partnerships between affordable housing developers, investors, community leaders, and health institutions. She also supports participants in other CCI programs that are developing pipelines of projects to meet their community’s priorities.

Kevin Progar, Project Director, UPMC Health Plan

Kevin Progar is a project director at UPMC Health Plan. Kevin develops investment strategies and performs due diligence to support the organization's deployment of program-related investments; successfully structures scalable, value-based contracts with multiple community organizations to meet a diverse range of housing needs; collaborates with housing stakeholders to maximize the benefits of the American Rescue Plan funding; and continues to explore new opportunities at the intersection of health and housing.

Tracy Kaufman, Senior Advisory/Consultant, NCSHA

Tracy Kaufman is a senior advisor/consultant with NCSHA, supporting the development of housing finance and agency partnerships with hospitals, health systems, and other health organizations to expand financing for affordable housing development and preservation through the Healthy Housing, Healthy Community (H3C) Partnerships Program.