Chesapeake Housing Mission plans to provide more support to low-income families
DELMARVA- The Chesapeake Housing Mission has a new Executive Director, Michael Franklin, and he plans to continue the goal of the organization by providing vital home repairs to low-income families in the Chesapeake Region of Maryland.
“Right now, is a big time of building because we are coming out of COVID,” Franklin said. “We are also just coming into the warm season, so there’s a lot more going on right now and projects that have been backed up because of COVID and the construction materials costs and all that.”
But, Don Taylor who led the organization for about 13 years said now they are taking the organization to new heights, adding more of a healthcare component.
“We need more resources, funding, etc. and I think Michael’s going to drive that, especially focused on healthcare and we just learned that in the last few years,” Taylor said. “We really didn’t understand the concept of a ramp or a floor or a roof repair led to better health.”
The organization said moving forward the big thing for them is formalizing their memorandum of understanding agreement with community partners.
“It says the health department, Chesapeake Housing Mission and the hospital all agree and are going to work together to reduce the level of poverty housing; getting the same thing from Tidal, which we are in discussions with, Wicomico and Somerset all together. And, then we would take on Dorchester,” Taylor said.
Which I’m told in return could help decrease the number of accidents and hospital visits.
“There are a lot of social issues that effect people’s health in the community and addressing those social issues can reduce the amount of healthcare expenses that we have by reducing the amount of healthcare services people have to receive,” Franklin said.
The organization said they hope to expand to Accomack, Sussex, and Caroline counties.
Franklin said he’s been in his new role for around a month now. He was the the former CEO of Atlantic General Hospital.
