Long-term Affordable Homeownership Gets a Big Boost with Cornerstone Homeownership Innovation Program Grants

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More communities across the country are making—and keeping—homeownership affordable, thanks to grants from Capital Impact Partners' Cornerstone Partnership, a peer network supporting programs that help more hard-working people buy homes today, maintain those homes and keep them affordable in the future.

The Cornerstone Partnership recently awarded nine continuation grants to affordable homeownership programs nationwide as part of the third year of the Cornerstone Homeownership Innovation Program (CHIP), an innovative effort that builds capacity of local programs that make affordable and sustainable homeownership a reality for millions of Americans.

Rather than offering one-time grants to homeowners, these programs enable new homebuyers to partner with a government or nonprofit agency acting as a co-investor, injecting substantial public funds to reduce homeownership costs. In return, homebuyers agree to limit, or share, their equity appreciation to preserve affordability so that the initial public investment can ultimately serve far more families. Long-term affordable homeownership programs use a wide variety of affordability models and resale formulas to achieve these goals.

"For decades, affordable homeownership programs nationwide have been helping Americans realize the American dream," said Terry Simonette, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners, "but, too often, those homes are resold at market value, taking them out of the affordable homeownership market. Long-term affordable homeownership is a way to keep homes affordable for the next family—and the one after that. The CHIP grants are helping local programs build scale and capacity and create replicable homeownership programs that promote affordability for the long-term."

The nine nonprofits receiving continuation grants are:

• Champlain Housing Trust, Burlington, VT
• City First Enterprises, Inc., Washington, DC
• Hello Housing, San Francisco, CA
• HomeBase, Austin, TX
• Homestead Community Land Trust, Seattle, WA
• Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County, fiscal agent for the South Florida Community Land Trust Network, West Palm Beach, FL
• Long Island Housing Partnership, Hauppauge, NY
• Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, Park City, UT
• The Housing Fund, Nashville, TN

The CHIP is designed as a five-year program funded by the federal Social Innovation Fund and the Ford Foundation to provide capacity building grants and technical assistance to homeownership programs across the country with a commitment to long-term affordability. Since 2011, the federal Social Innovation Fund has awarded Cornerstone Partnership $4 million and the Ford Foundation has committed over $3.5 million to support the CHIP. All CHIP grants are also matched 1:1 on the local level, and as a result, Cornerstone anticipates that over $15 million will be invested in bringing this innovative model to scale during the course of the five-year program.

The Cornerstone Partnership is a peer network for homeownership programs that preserve long-term affordability and community stability, helping more hard-working people buy homes today, maintain those homes, and keep them affordable in the future. Cornerstone Partnership has grown to over 800 members since its launch in October, 2010 and provides resources and technical assistance to support long-term affordable homeownership program practitioners in the field. www.affordableownership.org.

Capital Impact Partners (formerly known as NCB Capital Impact), is a leader in financial and social innovation for communities. A nonprofit organization and Community Development Financial Institution, we bring our roots in cooperative development, diverse network of partners and problem solving know-how to connect communities to capital and capabilities that together create social change. Learn more at www.capitalimpact.org  

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than 75 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service and champions community solutions through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

SOURCE NCB Capital Impact