Support from CDFI Helps Expand Complex Care Center in Kentucky
Client: Home of the Innocents
Client Location: Louisville, KY
CDFI: Community Ventures
CDFI Service Area: Lexington, KY
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Home of the Innocents, a 145-year-old nonprofit healthcare provider serving children with the most complex medical needs in Louisville, Kentucky, needed financing to expand its center. However, mainstream financial institutions were ill-equipped to meet these needs, hindered by challenges that are all too familiar to many small nonprofits. That’s where CDFI Community Ventures stepped in, providing Home of the Innocents with the critical funding necessary to move forward with their project.
A Critical Gap in Care and Capital
Home of the Innocents is dedicated to serving children with extremely complex medical needs in the state of Kentucky, including ventilator-dependent and medically fragile patients requiring 24/7 skilled care.
Advances in pediatric medicine have allowed many of these children to live into adulthood—creating a life-saving success and a systemic crisis. Historically, when residents turned 21, they were forced to leave pediatric care and transition into adult facilities that were not equipped to meet their medical, respiratory, or therapeutic needs. As a result, nearly 40% of residents discharged at age 21 passed away within 18 months, not because their conditions were terminal, but because appropriate care did not exist.
Home of the Innocents identified a clear and urgent solution: expand its Kosair for Kids Complex Care Center to allow residents to age in place, preserving continuity of care and preventing avoidable loss of life. However, the scale and complexity of the project—$75 million for specialized, ventilator-ready healthcare infrastructure—exceeded what traditional financing sources could support.
Mainstream lenders were unable to fill the capital gap due to the nonprofit ownership structure, the specialized asset type, long project timeline, and lack of conventional revenue metrics. This is where Community Ventures’ role as a CDFI was essential.
Through the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, Community Ventures helped unlock patient capital that mainstream finance could not provide. Working in collaboration with Old National Bank, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and other partners, Community Ventures structured and deployed NMTC financing that helped close a critical funding gap, de-risk the project, and catalyze additional public and private investment.
This intervention did not stand alone—it activated a capital stack that made the entire project viable and allowed construction to move forward.
CDFIs Restore Futures Through Life-Saving Impact
Home of the Innocents serves residents from across Kentucky, many of whom rely on Medicaid and come from families without access to private long-term care options. The expansion ensures that medical progress—children living longer—does not become a new form of risk due to inadequate systems.
Community Ventures’ participation demonstrates how CDFIs play a critical role in bridging healthcare, housing, and community infrastructure, especially where markets fail to respond to evolving human needs. They provide families peace of mind, dignity, and certainty for their children’s futures. In turn, this expanded capacity is now saving lives by correcting a systemic failure in healthcare transition.
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