Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Jessica Salem, Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity at Dayton Children's Hospital
Dec 9, 2025
Jessica Salem, the Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity at Dayton Children's Hospital, talks passionately about the Kinship Housing Project. She reveals how community health workers identified urgent housing needs for kinship caregivers, particularly during crises. Salem elaborates on assembling partners, funding strategies, and the hospital's pivotal role in the initiative. She highlights the project’s success in improving child health outcomes and offers advice for other health systems looking to implement similar community-focused housing solutions.
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Housing Need Identified By Community Workers
- Dayton Children's began planning the Kinship Housing Project after community health workers repeatedly flagged housing as the top barrier for kinship families.
- The opioid epidemic and a local tornado accelerated kinship placements and made housing needs urgent.
Leadership With Development Experience Matters
- A community-driven CEO commitment can rapidly shift organizational priorities toward housing and social determinants.
- Leadership with public-sector development experience unlocked political and practical support for the project.
Local Partners Shaped The Design
- Dayton Children's acquired two acres from an old school and assembled local partners: architect, contractor, property manager, and neighborhood developers.
- They designed duplex homes to match the neighborhood scale and hired Wallet Communities for leasing and Citywide Development for neighborhood engagement.