What is Upham’s PACE ?

PACE began as a demonstration project in the early 1970s in San Francisco. On Lok (Cantonese for “place of peace and happiness”) Senior Health Service coordinated many community-based services to help families in the Italian-Chinese North Beach neighborhoods care for aging family members — and avoid a nursing home placement. Ultimately this model of care for older adults was funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and adopted in many other states.

Upham’s Community Care is a well-established community health center that serves as Upham’s PACE’s parent organization. In existence for twenty years, the PACE program now has three centers in the greater Boston area serving almost 300 participants annually.

The Upham’s PACE opened up its first location in Dorchester in March of 1996. Our second site was opened in Dudley Square in April of 2008. In 2013, with the opening of the third PACE center within a housing complex, the process of developing and designing the supportive housing portfolio was begun. With a HUD grant, the housing authority designated twelve units in the housing complex to become part of the 12,000 square foot PACE program. This was the first opportunity for Upham’s PACE to be part of the national effort to strengthen relationships between healthcare and affordable housing for the older adults, one of the fastest growing populations in need. As of January 2019, the PACE supportive housing complex is under new ownership, The Community Builders (TCB). It is scheduled to undergo a progressive renovation that will result in refurbished living spaces, better community integration for residents, and more access to green space.