For many Central Texans, the high cost of housing forces difficult trade-offs, leaving little room for essential health and basic needs. This strain creates stress and instability that erodes health and limits opportunity. Helping our region make progress on housing, particularly for families struggling to make ends meet, will unlock opportunities in other vital areas such as health, education, employment, and more.  

The Foundation plans to learn from our current Housing + Health grantees and other community members working in the affordable housing space to inform a funding opportunity designed to strengthen our region’s capacity to provide safe, stable affordable housing for communities with the greatest needs. 

To advance health equity in Central Texas, our region will need to increase the number of residents who receive effective, affordable, timely, and culturally responsive care. Doing so will require strengthening Central Texas’ safety net system, which includes Federally Qualified Health Centers, serving approximately 80% of the uninsured in our region, along with other safety net clinics.

The Foundation will develop a funding opportunity for clinics serving the uninsured based on quantitative data about the needs in Central Texas and through community conversations and convenings, including current safety net grantees. Funding will build on the Foundation’s long-term investments in the safety net system, including support for Federally Qualified Health Centers and other clinics serving the uninsured.