Print pageRelease date: 6/12/2024
Contact:
Kim Marshall
202-760-4054
[email protected]
NeighborWorks America awards over $1.8 million in grants to implement innovative housing model
Washington, D.C. – NeighborWorks America has awarded more than $1.8 million in grants to 15 NeighborWorks network organizations to adopt, implement and scale shared equity housing programs. Shared equity housing uses a shared ownership structure that makes a home affordable to a family while also ensuring the home stays affordable for the community over time. Some models include community land trusts, limited equity cooperatives, deed-restricted homes and resident-owned manufactured housing communities.
NeighborWorks' survey on housing affordability revealed that three in five long-term renters say homeownership doesn't feel possible for them, including 41% who say it doesn't feel possible at all. Amidst a worsening housing crisis, community-based organizations and nonprofits have continued to look for creative, comprehensive solutions, and shared equity housing models offer one such path forward.
"How can we ensure the safety and housing stability of our friends, family and neighbors for years to come?" asks NeighborWorks America's President & CEO Marietta Rodriguez. "Shared equity housing models are designed to create this lasting affordability and contribute to community wealth. It's one of many comprehensive solutions that NeighborWorks America offers to strengthen the overall sense of well-being and financial health for anyone who wants to own a home."
"Advancing the Promise of Shared Equity Housing Models" highlights how shared equity housing often acts as a "stepping stone" toward traditional homeownership for residents who would otherwise stay renters and also helps to stop displacement and gentrification.
Since 2019, NeighborWorks America's Shared Equity Initiative has provided $7.63 million to 64 community-based nonprofit organizations to launch or grow shared equity housing models; test specific shared equity housing innovations that can serve as a model for other communities; and build more shared equity housing units, particularly in rural areas.
This year's grantees include:
- Affordable Housing Alliance, Inc. (New Jersey).
- cdcb | come dream. come build. (Texas).
- Champlain Housing Trust (Vermont).
- Community Housing Partners Corporation (Virginia).
- Downstreet Housing & Community Development (Vermont).
- Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids Nonprofit Housing Corporation (Michigan).
- Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. (Michigan).
- Lighthouse MI (Michigan).
- Mission Economic Development Agency (California).
- Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire, Inc. (California).
- Neighborhood Housing Services Oklahoma (Oklahoma).
- NeighborWorks Green Bay (Wisconsin).
- NeighborWorks Montana (Montana).
- NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania).
- Piedmont Housing Alliance (Virginia).
- Shared Equity & Cooperatively-Owned Housing: A Guide to Navigating the Models.
- Perceptions of housing affordability.
- Owning a home, sharing the equity.
About NeighborWorks America
Celebrating 45 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a national, nonpartisan nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Our network of excellence includes nearly 250 nonprofits in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and on Native lands. NeighborWorks offers grant funding, peer exchange, technical assistance, evaluation tools and access to best-in-class training as the nation’s leading trainer of housing and community development professionals. NeighborWorks network organizations provide residents in their communities with affordable homes, owned and rented; financial counseling and coaching; community building through resident engagement; and collaboration in the areas of health, employment and education.
