St. Ben's Clinic seeks new location in nearby mixed-use apartment project
Columbia St Mary’s Hospital is proposing to move its downtown Milwaukee health clinic into a nearby apartment development for low-income tenants,according to zoning documents filed with the city.
Ascension St. Ben's Clinic primarily serves uninsured or under-insured patients from the downtown Milwaukee area and is staffed by the hospital's trained personnel.
The move would be only one building away but would add the clinic to the first floor of the planned mixed-use apartment building at 1004 N. 10th St.
The apartment complex is being developed by Chicago-based nonprofit Heartland Housing Inc. and will be mainly funded through government tax credits issued by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
“It’s a wonderful place for us,” said Bill Solberg, director of community services at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital.
The new space will enable the clinic’s nurse practitioners to operate more efficiently and safely, Solberg said, and will open the possibility of providing patients with more advanced medical care, such as wound treatment.
The apartment building is already planned to include a warming center, a correctional day reporting center and Capuchin offices, which provide other medical and meal services to the poor.
Solberg said being in the building with so many other services for the low-income population will help the clinic reach out to more people who require medical assistance.
“A lot of people that come to our housing have not had regular access to health care,” said Nadia Underhill, director of real estate at Heartland Housing. “Being able to have this clinic that’s providing quality care can really change people’s lives.”
The development company acquired the land in 2014, but has been working through city permit processes to get construction on it started in September.
The building and the clinic are expected to open in fall 2018, Underhill said.