Portland Is Trying To Help People Return To Gentrified Areas. Austin Has Similar Plans.

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.

Vienna’s public housing is affordable, full of economically diverse residents, and extremely popular. The housing units are open to almost anyone, as 80 percent of residents qualify, and once you sign a rental contract it doesn’t expire even if your income increases. Plus, the rent can only go up based on inflation if it increases by 5 percent in a year.

It takes political will to create mixed-income housing and manage the social impacts of gentrification. In contrast to New York, the London borough of Hackney has taken steps to fix its housing crisis by putting the interests of residents ahead of the interests of developers. Several housing developments slated for development in the East London neighborhood now blend subsidized and market-rate units.

Despite soaring housing costs, the city government in Paris aims to achieve mixité sociale. That essentially means it's preventing economic segregation to ensure residents from a broad cross-section of society reside in the city and own businesses there. It’s doing so by nabbing real estate to create public housing and providing real estate subsidiaries for small businesses.

To help families achieve home ownership in a volatile real estate market, the Hannibal Square Community Land Trust acquires land in Winter Park, Fla., and the surrounding area and then builds or renovates homes on the properties to sell to qualified buyers. The program allows families to purchase homes at an affordable price that is not typically available in the current market because buyers are responsible only for the cost of the house, with the land itself remaining in the trust's ownership.

Affordable housing in Singapore has resulted in one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world. In 1964 the government embraced a "Home Ownership for the People Scheme" in which it gave lower and middle-income citizens access to affordable home ownership. Subsidized apartments were sold at low prices and were not to be sold for at least five years after which the real estate value had risen significantly. Apartments sold in 2009, for example, gained almost half a million dollars in value by 2020. New subsidized apartments are under construction and 16,000 have already been sold in the past year.

A "right-to-purchase" policy has enabled nonprofits to purchase residential buildings in gentrified neighborhoods in order to prevent the displacement of those relying on rent-controlled housing. Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is a Bay Area nonprofit leading the cause to counter gentrification and prevent developers from purchasing residential buildings that house low and moderate-income households. MEDA has purchased and managed 32 buildings and is one of fewer than 10 nonprofits in the area that exercise the "right-to-purchase" policy.

The Houston Community Land Trust (CLT) is a nonprofit that sells affordable homes in Houston to help resist gentrification. They keep it affordable by only selling the houses on top of the land and not the land itself. Their goal to build or convert 1,100 homes into the trust over five years, which essentially allows prospective homeowners to turn their land over to the community so that everyone benefits from the purchase. They are already underway on this goal, and this article features many voices of residents who personally benefitted from the CLT.

The Homestead Community Land Trust offers affordable home ownership in Seattle and the rest of King County, Washington, ensuring that there is always permanently affordable homes available. This opens up homeowner opportunities for those who have historically been excluded and serves as a stem in the tide of gentrification. This article includes personal testimony from people who live in the housing, and already the program has reduced buyers' costs by 30%.

Economic mobility becomes far more attainable when children grow up in a "high-opportunity" area as opposed to a "low-opportunity" area: housing within the city with access to transportation and amenities, higher-performing schools, and lower crime rates. An enhanced voucher program through the Charlotte Housing Authority offers families housing vouchers to move into high-opportunity areas. They also offer incentives to landlords who accept the vouchers, such as up to $1,000 to repair damage beyond normal wear and tear. The program is still new, and it will take generations to see its affects.