For CalOptima Health, improving health in Orange County means looking beyond what happens in a doctor’s office.
It means looking at where people live.
Seven years ago, CalOptima Health made a bold commitment to that idea, setting aside $100 million to address the health needs of people experiencing homelessness. Since then, the public agency has invested millions in affordable and supportive housing, embracing a simple but powerful philosophy: Housing is health.
“A person is not able to be healthy if they are not stably housed,” said Kelly Bruno-Nelson, executive director of Medi-Cal and CalAIM at CalOptima Health.
For CalOptima Health, that belief has meant putting health care dollars directly into housing, moving from addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness to helping create affordable and supportive homes.
In 2023, CalOptima Health began directly investing in supportive housing and, especially in recent years, has focused on a population facing an increasingly urgent housing crisis – seniors.
“We know that the fastest-growing cohort of the unhoused are seniors,” Bruno-Nelson said.
That commitment brought CalOptima Health and National CORE together at Santa Angelina, a senior affordable housing community in Placentia. CalOptima Health provided $1.3 million in critical funding that helped National CORE complete the 65-home community, including 21 supportive housing apartments for seniors who have experienced homelessness or are at risk of becoming unhoused.
“Santa Angelina provides services specifically for that population,” Bruno-Nelson said. “It does so in a dignified manner, and that matches perfectly with CalOptima Health’s mission.”
Now that partnership is growing. CalOptima Health has committed $2 million to National CORE for Marks Way in the City of Orange, a senior housing community that reserves homes for older adults who have experienced homelessness.
For CalOptima Health, investing in homes is only part of the equation. Its partnership with National CORE and Hope through Housing Foundation brings together housing, health care and resident services to help people achieve lasting stability.
“It really is a trifecta together that allows us to provide all the wraparound services necessary to ensure folks are not just housed, but they remain housed and remain healthy,” Bruno-Nelson said.
CalOptima Health’s willingness to look beyond the traditional boundaries of health is helping to redefine what it means to care for a community.
For its forward-thinking leadership, extraordinary investment in housing and commitment to the health and dignity of Orange County’s most vulnerable residents, National CORE and Hope through Housing Foundation are proud to recognize CalOptima Health with the 2026 Commitment to Community Award.
