One City Might Have Just Cracked the Housing Crisis

Milwaukee nonprofit Acts Housing is addressing the city's homeownership gap with a comprehensive model that combines HUD-certified education, one-on-one financial coaching, alternative lending and a property acquisition arm that competes with investors to preserve housing inventory for buyers. Over three decades, the program has helped more than 4,000 individuals and families purchase homes.

Community organizations in Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park neighborhood are tackling the city's homeownership crisis through lease-to-own programs that convert foreclosed properties into affordable homes for long-term renters. Metcalfe Park Community Bridges' Reclaim and Restore initiative purchases foreclosed homes from the city, rehabs them using donor and foundation funding, and transfers ownership to neighborhood residents through an equity-based lottery system with monthly payments as low as $901.

Project:HOMES bought a local mobile home park, Bermuda Estates, to renovate the units and provide higher-quality, affordable housing. The group raised $4.2 million to repair each unit, build a new community center and host events in the park, all while not increasing rent costs.

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.

Shacks on Racks relocates houses and works to make homeownership more accessible to area workers. Since starting in 2016, the non-profit has relocated 21 houses. For those 21 saved houses, Shacks on Racks estimates they’ve spared landfills more than 1.2 million pounds of waste.

Homestead Community Land Trust and the local Habitat for Humanity specialize in helping lower-income residents become homeowners. They have portfolios of homes available to lower-income residents who make less than 80% of the area median income. To date, the community land trust model has been implemented at a small scale relative to the need and Habitat plans to build almost 300 new homes in the coming years.

The Sacramento Community Land Trust helps people gain more access to permanently affordable housing while simultaneously working to prevent displacement. Through its work, the Community Land Trust preserves affordability and stability, expands home ownership, and grows community wealth.

The New Markets Tax Credits program provides affordable housing by selling homes with mortgages as low as $550. Since the program gained more traction, the number of owner-occupied buildings in the area has more than doubled to 26% from 12%.

Community of Hope offers day shelter services and intensive case management for unhoused residents in the Las Cruces area. In the fiscal year 2020-2021, the program served 3,263 people, connecting them to affordable, income-based housing solutions.

South Dakota Habitat for Humanity affiliates are tackling the affordable housing crisis by shifting from building single homes to developing entire subdivisions. In Sioux Falls, Habitat completed a 26-unit project and in Rapid City, Habitat purchased land and secured a $12.5 million funding package to build 40 units in the organization's largest-ever South Dakota development. Both projects are pricing homes below $300,000, making ownership more accessible to working-class families.