The first $18 million of Mass General Hospital’s (MGH) $62 million Community Health Impact Fund (CHIF) has been distributed to 22 organizations that support affordable housing.

While the CHIF is tied to the $1.8 billion construction of MGH’s new Phillip and Susan Ragon building at the main MGH campus on Cambridge Street, the funds so far have been largely distributed to the hospital’s wider footprint, with limited direct impact on the Beacon Hill and West End neighborhoods.

At the project’s March 23 public hearing for Determination of Need (DoN), President of MGH, Peter Slavin, said, “This building will also trigger a major investment by the hospital in community programs in the West End and Beacon Hill and other neighborhoods.”

At an October 14 City Planning Department hearing regarding the campus expansion, MGH committed to turn over a property at 12 Garden Street to an affordable housing developer for the purpose of income-restricted housing once replacement space was constructed. MGH had not responded to a request to confirm the status of the property as of the deadline for this story.

While some of the organizations receiving support from the CHIF provide broad housing assistance across Greater Boston, such as the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School’s eviction defense and relocation efforts or More than Words’ advocacy for youth leaving public care systems, Women’s Lunch Place (WLP) is seemingly the only organization with plans to spend funds to support affordable housing directly on the Beacon Hill or West End communities.

Located in Back Bay, WLP runs a housing advocacy and sheltering program for at-risk women experiencing domestic violence, facing eviction or food instability. The organization plans to use the funds to create Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), a Housing First principal that attaches no preconditions for participants to access housing support.

“We are beyond grateful for MGH's support and plan to use our portion of funding to meet the urgent need to create PSH options for chronically homeless women in Boston,” said WLP executive director Jennifer Hanlon Wigon in a statement over email. “We are exploring opportunities to bring PSH units online, including an opportunity in Beacon Hill.”

However, the proposed creation of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) housing at 27/29 Hancock Street has been a source of contention on Beacon Hill. The luxury apartment developer of the Archer Building on Temple Street purchased the property to comply with low-income housing requirements. A new nonprofit, Homes on Hancock, is opposed to the property being converted into 36 SRO units, saying it allows the luxury developer to skirt their low-income housing responsibilities, and proposing an alternate plan for 10 apartments.

Homes on Hancock has pointed to drug use and homeless loitering at an SRO building on Bowdoin Street and research from the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance that cites increased use of emergency services at PSH properties. However, the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance still supports a Housing First approach to chronic homelessness.

“[27/29 Hancock Street], which for decades have been licensed lodging houses, are designed with 39 private bedrooms,” Wigon said. “Shared living arrangements are one of a variety of dignified options that can meet the critical need for affordable housing and supportive services in Boston."

The remaining $44 million of the CHIF will be distributed in the following spring and summer, according to a press release from MGH. The future funding opportunities will be geared towards mental and behavioral health, economic mobility and financial security and food insecurity.

The MGH CHIF, the largest in Massachusetts history, is attached to the construction of the Phillip and Susan Ragon building by the project’s DoN application. The Department of Health’s DoN process stipulates that 5% of major capital expenditures by hospitals be directed to a CHIF on the principal that access to healthcare alone is insufficient to tackle health care costs and outcomes.