A Nonprofit Lender Revives the Hopes of Subprime Borrowers

An innovative program by an unusual bank allows low-income people in Cambodia to take out a 15-year fixed mortgage with little or no documentation - contradicting traditional loan assumptions and creating means for some of the country's poorest people to completely change their lives. The bank and its investors are now making a profit, and more than 700 mortgages and building loans have been provided.

Single, non-related people are co-buying homes with the help of real estate organizations like Live Work Denver to make homeownership more affordable.

Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status. It helped them form and manage community savings cooperatives, secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.

A group of Kenyan coastal women used a blue economy grant to establish a mud crab-fattening enterprise in Jomvu Creek, generating up to $310/month in collective income and planting nearly 1 million mangrove seedlings.

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), enacted in Washington, D.C. in 1980, gives tenants the right of first refusal when their building is put up for sale. The law requires landlords to notify tenants before selling, allowing residents to purchase the property themselves, form cooperative ownership, or assign their rights to affordable housing nonprofits. Since forming, TOPA, with the help of several local housing and tenant organizations, has preserved thousands of homes in D.C.

Grove Park Renewal aims to help residents from the majority-black area of northwest Atlanta become homeowners by turning vacant properties into newly renovated, affordable homes. The nonprofit also offers an affordable rental program that allows qualifying individuals and families to live in one of its properties at a more affordable, income-adjusted rate.

The best way to grow generational wealth in the United States is by owning a home, so the Portland-based collective Taking Ownership is fighting the effects of gentrification in Black neighborhoods by helping homeowners do necessary home improvement work. Volunteers and licensed contractors do the work, and the projects are funded with donations from mostly White and wealthy donors.

The CHN Housing Partners’ lease-purchase program builds affordable homes for low-income individuals to rent. Residents live and pay rent in the homes for 15 years while taking homeownership and financial counseling courses to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become homeowners. Over the past 30 years, CHN has built more than 1,700 lease-purchase homes and more than 1,600 of them have been sold to owner-occupants.

A Portland shelter’s Homeless Prevention Program provides rent assistance to families who have not yet been involved with social services and are about to lose their homes. In 2022, the program helped 93 families pay back rent, pay past-due utilities, or create payment plans with their landlords.

Microfinance institutions in India are providing low-cost loans to women in remote areas that typically only have access to loan sharks. The women are using the money to break poverty cycles and start their own businesses.