Nationwide Children's Hospital's Healthy Homes program is moving from scattered single-family rehabs to bigger, family-focused housing in Columbus, leaning into apartment-style projects after years of small renovations and new builds. Hospital leaders say fresh financing tools and key land purchases are clearing the way for larger developments, a shift that could noticeably change how the hospital's place-based health investments show up on the streets of Linden and the South Side.
As reported by Columbus Business First, the hospital's nonprofit development arm has been building out its pipeline and is now lining up larger multifamily projects designed to house whole families. That move follows a long run of smaller builds and repairs that Healthy Homes says helped stabilize blocks closest to the hospital's main campus.
New financing to fuel bigger projects
Healthy Homes' ability to scale up is tied to newer financing approaches such as the Linden Healthy Homes Fund II, a $50 million fund announced in 2023 that blends loans and grants to support as many as 150 rental units over the next decade, according to Nationwide Children's Hospital. The mixed capital model, combining low-interest loans, grant dollars and public support, is structured to make larger construction projects pencil out in parts of the city where small single-family conversions used to dominate the work.
Big donors and site buys
Philanthropy has been tracking the expansion. Spectrum News reported that the Nationwide Foundation committed $10 million in 2025 to the hospital's Pediatric Innovation Fund, with a portion set aside to boost housing work in Linden and on the South Side. Hospital leaders say that money is expected to support scattered-site rental construction and some homeownership options alongside the bigger multifamily pipeline now on the drawing board.
Healthy Homes’ track record and next sites
Since 2008, Nationwide Children's says Healthy Homes has touched more than 950 homes in Columbus through rehabs, new construction and repair grants. Nationwide Children's Hospital has also confirmed the purchase of the former Corpus Christi church property on the South Side, with plans calling for demolition and redevelopment into affordable rentals as well as ownership opportunities.
What residents should watch
Healthy Homes and hospital officials say neighborhood feedback will be part of the process as projects get larger, while city approvals and financing will continue to be crucial hurdles for big multifamily builds. On its website, Healthy Homes presents its work as a health strategy focused on stabilizing housing to improve outcomes for children and families, and the nonprofit says it plans to coordinate with community partners and city agencies as designs, zoning and permits advance. The group continues to highlight repairs, rentals and homeownership as parallel tracks for strengthening neighborhoods.
For Columbus residents, the shift means more family-sized units backed by deeper capital and institutional support. Officials say the key signposts to watch over the next 12 to 24 months will be site plans, permit applications and any new city or county financing commitments that lock these larger projects into place.
