Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities (BHEC) Camden, New Jersey

A Single-State Approach with Collective Action.  Led and managed by the Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), BHEC was designed to address the social determinants of health through cross-sector collaborations in four New Jersey communities – Asbury Park, Camden, Newark, and Paterson.  BHEC’s goal was to build healthier communities by improving the social, economic, and environmental conditions that enable all residents, especially low-income residents and residents of color, to improve their well-being. Overall, the final evaluation found that BHEC was successful in: a) advancing numerous built environment projects in all four cities – including affordable housing, mixed-use developments, and new community spaces; b) strengthening the food security and healthy food access ecosystems at the neighborhood, city, county, and state levels; and c) bolstering local community development systems more wholistically.

The BHEC city teams advanced 19 built environment projects during the initiative – 11 of which benefitted from direct BHEC assistance. The BHEC projects attracted $103.0 million in total investments – nearly $4.7 million from BHEC resources and $98.0 million from public, private, and philanthropic sources for an impressive leverage ratio just short of 20:1.  Through the healthy food access work, city teams grew their networks to include new relationships with food pantries, corner bodegas, senior housing developments, farmers’ markets, and hospital systems and established new partnerships with urban, small, and disadvantaged farmers. Deeper cross-sector relationships fostered among the BHEC team members led to new capacities for some participating organizations, attracted new resources, reinvigorated resident engagement and empowerment, and infused the approach to the work with a health equity lens.

Prioritizing the Parkside Neighborhood.  Camden is a city of about 71,000 people located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River with approximately 5,000 people living in the Parkside neighborhood where the Camden BHEC team focused its efforts. Once a thriving commercial corridor and vibrant community, disinvestment in the 1960s and 1970s led to blighted buildings and an unsafe neighborhood. But it was the residents that took back control of the community that held so much pride for them, and incorporated in 1993 as the precursor to PBCIP.  Established from its community member roots, PBCIP has been a model of how community-driven development happens to address the drivers of health, well-being, and economic prosperity, in partnership.

Local Leaders Doing Development Better.  The PBCIP-led team included partners from the Camden Redevelopment Agency, Division of Planning City of Camden, the Latin American Economic Development Association (LAEDA), Cinnaire Solutions, Roots to Prevention, and Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.  Over the course of the BHEC initiative as the team’s priorities and area of focus shifted, the composition of the Camden team also evolved.  Other partners who have participated in development projects during the initiative include Purpose-Built Communities, Urban Development Partners, Cornerstone Development Partners, the Osbourn Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and Conifer.

Making Community Impact.  With the support of annual operating grants from the BHEC initiative, PBCIP hired a senior project manager to guide its development activities.  The new project manager greatly expanded the organization’s development capacities, ramped up its production, and helped grow a burgeoning pipeline of even more ambitious projects.

• Path to Homeownership. In 2024, PBCIP completed and sold 10 newly constructed and rehabilitated affordable single-family homes and sold them significantly below appraised values, reflecting PBCIP’s commitment to sustainable community revitalization and the creation of intergenerational wealth.  The BHEC initiative has provided PBCIP with predevelopment grants and a program related investment loan toward the construction and rehabilitation of Hardy Homes which will create 10 more new homeowners in Parkside, prioritizing hiring subcontractors on this project who are residents of the community.
• Mixed-Use Development. With its elevated in-house capacity PBCIP has also made seminal progress on a major redevelopment project on Haddon Avenue, Parkside I and II, with closing on the residential component’s construction at the beginning of 2026.  This complex, mixed-use project includes affordable housing, new PBCIP offices, street level retail space, and commercial space for Osbourn FQHC as an anchor tenant.  Pulling the components of the capital stack together has taken several years for the project development partners – Cinnaire, Cornerstone, and PBCIP – who have worked hard to secure a $17.7 million allocation from the state’s ASPIRE program, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and Medicare-waiver funds (for supportive housing units).  State officials who served on the BHEC state advisory board credit the Camden team for encouraging and securing important ASPIRE program rule changes that helped this transformational project move forward and have served to make the overall program more workable for other developers.
• Economic Development. BHEC also provided some support to the PBCIP’s deep commitment to the revitalization of the Haddon Avenue commercial corridor and to the success of the owners and entrepreneurs who do business there.  Under the rubric of its Neighborhood Preservation Program, PBCIP organizes a robust slate of programming including regular meetings with business owners, small business training, events, and street festivals to bring potential customers to the corridor.  A PBCIP and LAEDA partnership developed commercial space on Haddon Avenue which it leased to Curate Noir.  Curate Noir is a retail incubator that provides a space where Black- and Brown-owned microenterprises can sell their products.  PBCIP’s development team also activated Legacy Plaza – an outdoor community gathering space on Haddon Avenue and a space that helped Glassy Brown Bakery open there.

Addressing the Broader Food Ecosystem.  Throughout the initiative, partnerships and programming have only grown with Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes and its Virtua Eat Well and the Roots to Prevention initiatives supported urban gardeners in the neighborhood, helped the gardeners sell their produce, provided residents with prescriptions to buy healthy foods, and put on nutrition and cooking classes. PBCIP has partnered with Africa Link, a technical assistance provider for residents creating agribusinesses. Its work will provide a pathway for residents into LAEDA’s food business training curriculum. PBCIP’s Roots to Market program is also helping growers in the neighborhood and Rancocas Creek Farm to bring fresh produce to the community by organizing pop-up farmer’s markets with support from a new partner, Cooper University Hospital.

Data and Community Informed Action.  PBCIP has been a leader in systems change.  A research collaboration with the Rutgers Camden CURE Program is producing papers on property ownership in Camden with a goal of increased opportunities for community-serving projects by nonprofit developers and homeownership opportunities for residents.  Additionally, PBCIP provided a report to the City with recommendations on program structures, referrals, and policies to guide administration of Camden’s rental assistance programs.  All of this activity and more has taken place in the context of a rigorous commitment to the engagement of Parkside residents in the revitalization strategy, including a training program for Community Ambassadors – volunteers who will deepen the connectedness of the residents to their broader community.

The Opportunities Ahead.  The BHEC work has helped create significant momentum into the next phase of the Parkside neighborhood’s revitalization. PBCIP’s Hardy Homes are nearing completion and the transformative, mixed-use Parkside I and II project is on track for completion over the next two years.  PBCIP is also moving to co-develop property it controls at 1301 Haddon Avenue for a project that will include 53 affordable housing units and 2,500 square feet of commercial space.  The project is working on seeking support from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York’s Affordable Housing Program and a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocation from the State of New Jersey in that program’s next funding round.  And, PBCIP has secured city council approval and pre-development funding from RWJF for a Haddon, Princess, Walnut infill housing project that will bring 27 new housing units with homeownership and intergenerational wealth-building opportunities for income-qualified residents. This project is located adjacent to the new Coriell Innovation Research Center, providing a valuable opportunity to leverage Coriell’s investment.

The major new 5-acre development that will house the Corielle Innovation Research Center at the boundary of the Parkside neighborhood will likely engender more opportunities to partner for equitable revitalization. PBCIP will continue to advance and grow its programming and support services for the business owners on Haddon Avenue, build on its partnerships with African Link and LAEDA to give Parkside residents agribusiness and food business opportunities, advocate for making more publicly-controlled real estate available to nonprofits who will, in turn, create community beneficial developments, and, most importantly, seek funding to ramp up its resident engagement as PBCIP works with the community and its partners to ensure that everyone can benefit and prosper from the transformative changes to come.  To learn more about how to partner with PBCIP or to invest in their exciting work, call 856-964-0440 or email Bridget Phifer at bphifer@pbcip.org.

Acknowledgements
A very special thanks to Marco Navarro and Maryam Khojasteh from the RWJF for their funding support and thought partnership of BHEC; Alyssa Saunders and colleagues at Mt. Auburn Associates for evaluation and learning partnership; our many New Jersey state-level advisors; our colleagues at Reinvestment Fund, specifically Leah Rusenko, Jacob Kraybill, and Sara Vernon Sterman; and in humble gratitude to our city team partners from Camden for their contributions and collaboration – Bridget Phifer and John Bond. Learn more about the BHEC initiative HERE and its evaluation reports HERE.