By Angela Swinson Lee
The new state-of-the-art Max Robinson Center, a 118,000-square-foot healthcare and research center, recently opened on the campus of St. Elizabeths in the Congress Heights neighborhood. The move was made possible in part because of a federal tax credit program enacted about 20 years ago to support community and economic development projects in mostly distressed neighborhoods around the country.
The healthcare center will continue to build on services provided by the facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Dr. Stephen Abbott has been with the healthcare center for seven years and said the move was a welcome change. “The clinic we were in before was closer to the Anacostia metro stop over by the big chair. It had four exam rooms, two dental chairs, and a behavioral health suite. It was a very cozy, comfortable place. It was familiar to all of our patients, but it had its limitations in terms of not just space, but what we could offer.”
The new building is equipped with 12 dental chairs, and more than 20 exam rooms, according to Abbott, who is the site medical director in Ward 8. “The waiting area is much more conducive to a relaxing environment. The nice thing about the old space was that it was cute and cozy, but it was also very, how shall we say? It was like being in your grandmother’s living room. Sometimes anybody could drop by and you never knew who to expect or what kind of mood they were in.” Whitman-Walker is in its 50th year of being a leader in LGBTQ health, research, education and policy with special expertise in HIV and LGBTQ care.
“The New Markets Tax Credit Program plays an essential role in stimulating economic development in low-income communities,” said En Jung Kim, Head of the New Markets Tax Credit Team for JPMorgan Chase.
“Since the program has been around, it’s targeted the most distressed communities around the country, areas that have poverty rates often greater than 30 percent,” Kim said. “This project, which services Wards 7 and 8, two wards that have historically been medically underserved, will bring much needed medical services, jobs and opportunities to the whole community.”
Kim added that these vital healthcare services, delivered by a trusted institution like Whitman-Walker, contribute to safer, more stable communities today and have a powerful impact on the health of future generations.
As a federally qualified healthcare center, funding is always essential, Abbott said. “You’re always looking for ways to be able to bring in financial support and allow you to provide care to folks who are otherwise underserved. So having that tax credit has allowed us to move into a building that is bigger. That will allow us to hire more providers who will then be able to see more patients and offer more,” Abbott said. “We will continue to grow exponentially once we are in the building because now, we have the platform from which we can provide services. We’ll be able to see more patients, but we’ll be able to see patients closer to their homes. We are actually closer to the metro stop. We are part of an area of the district that is under development or redeveloped, and we are here now in the beginning of that transition.”
Additional funding from the National Institutes of Health allowed for a research lab where research will be conducted on a broad range of medical conditions, including HIV, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure.
The clinic and the pharmacy will be available to members of the community. Achim Howard has been a patient at the clinic since 2006.
“The clinic has always been there for me,” Howard said. “It is not an entity that is just standing there, they are there for the community. I am not just a patient. They treat us like family.” Howard was at the center for the ribbon cutting recently and noticed the excitement on the faces of people in the community. “They were happy the center was there,” Howard said.