Leadership and clinic staff of nonprofits Acacia Network and La Casa de Salud gathered in the Bronx on Feb. 19 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Clay Avenue Health Center’s $2.6 million renovated facility.
The renovation funding came from a New York State Facility Transformation grant. The Acacia Network leadership applied for the grant in 2017 with the goal of increased capacity in mind.
“We know that so many individuals lack access to quality healthcare,” said Lauren Mendenhall, executive director at La Casa de Salud. “With 10 exam rooms [previously], we were able to serve about 2,500 clients. With the addition, [and] with this full gut renovation of almost 4,000 square feet, we’ve been able to add three exam rooms, and that has increased our capacity by 21 percent, so we’ll be able to serve close to 3,000 clients for almost 22,000 visits.”
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Started by Lorraine Montenegro, a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, La Casa de Salud has been serving the community since 1998 as the primary care arm of the Acacia Network. She co-founded United Bronx Parents in 1965 — a social service agency that provided educational services, supportive housing allowing mothers in recovery to live with their children, and services to older South Bronx residents. When she wanted to build a federally qualified healthcare center for United Bronx Parents, Montenegro went to Raul Russi, current president of the Acacia Network, for help.
“We have to make sure we celebrate history, we don’t rewrite history, and we know how we all ended up here,” said Lymaris Albors, CEO of the Acacia Network. “Thanks to Raul for being a visionary and incredible gratitude [to] Lorraine Montenegro for having the courage back then to fight for primary care services in the community.”
The Clay Avenue Health Center, located at 1776 Clay Ave., is one of five federally qualified healthcare centers La Casa de Salud has in the Bronx to aid underserved communities. The health center offers primary care and dental, behavioral health, and addiction and substance use services. These are vital to Bronx residents, who face health disparities at disproportionately higher rates out of the five boroughs: In 2023, Bronx residents had the highest rates of overdose deaths with 78 resident deaths per 100,000 residents.
“This renovated space here is an opportunity to do even more to reaffirm our commitment to our clients, to their families, to lifting up our community and saying that we will not accept the Bronx being first in everything challenging, but rather, we will lead in everything good,” said Vanessa L. Gibson, Bronx borough president. “We will lead when it comes to saving lives, giving clients hope, giving them the wraparound services.”
Adrian Lopez is grateful for the opportunities the health center has provided to help him get clean. He has called the center home for more than two years as a member of the residential treatment program, Promesa-Methadone to Abstinence Recovery (MTAR), which offers men over the age of 18 treatment for opioid use disorder.
The renovations remind Lopez to stay focused, he said: “to focus on my life and come back to my family again.”
William Schouten, a 61-year-old patient, echoed Lopez’s gratitude. “I’m grateful for being here because I came here and I was broken. I live upstairs in the MTAR unit,” he said. “I come here for all my medical benefits, all my medical needs. The staff here is amazing.”
At his age, Schouten said he is ready to retire and receive his pension after working his entire life. “I plan to do what I have to do and move out and be a productive member of society,” he said. “I look to help people now. That’s what they told me upstairs; ‘Don’t look down. The only time you look down on somebody is when you’re helping them up.’”