Print pageFor Immediate Release
May 19, 2025
Contact: Douglas Robinson
NeighborWorks America Congressionally Funded Shared Equity Investments Help Double Permanent Affordable Housing Supply in Focused Markets
Eight Organizations Share $375,000 in Grants in Final Round
Washington, D.C. – NeighborWorks America today announced $375,000 in Shared Equity Housing (SEH) investments to eight NeighborWorks network nonprofit organizations, the latest round under a Congressionally approved $12-million initiative. These grants come as an analysis on the program’s effectiveness shows how grant investment, technical assistance and scholarships over the initiative’s five-year span helped participating housing organizations grow their permanently affordable homeownership portfolios. Participants held 2,754 permanently affordable homes at the start of the program in 2020. With the broad support of the initiative and investments from other public and private sector partners, they grew their portfolios to 5,489 homes by September 30, 2024. To date, the $12-million program has leveraged $88 million in total private and public sector affordable homeownership investment.
Permanently affordable homeownership is possible through a variety of legal frameworks, including community land trusts (CLTs), deed restrictions, limited equity cooperatives and resident owned cooperatives (ROCs).
“It’s harder than ever to buy a home in many communities across the country,” explained NeighborWorks Shared Equity Housing Director Jenee Gaynor. “Shared equity models are efficient, effective and affordable. With these models, NeighborWorks America and our partner nonprofit housing organizations make it possible not just for one person to buy a home, but for one investment to make homeownership affordable for multiple owners over the long term.”
Promoting the benefits of share equity homeownership is just one the strategies within NeighborWorks America’s “Creating Homes, Building America” campaign to elevate affordable homeownership and quality rental housing strategies and opportunities in every corner of the country, in partnership with nearly 250 locally led nonprofit builders and lenders.
Many renters in America who want to purchase a home are unfamiliar with the different strategies that help make homeownership possible, shared equity among them. That pessimism is revealed in a 2025 NeighborWorks America survey of renters. The survey found that amidst stubbornly high home prices and mortgage rates, 48% of renters believed it wasn’t possible for them to become homeowners.
“Shared equity homeownership is a way to provide stability and affordability,” said NeighborWorks America President & CEO Marietta Rodriguez. “Americans unsure about their ability to buy and sustain a home for their families need the innovative partnerships and market-based solutions driven by investments from NeighborWorks America to nonprofit small businesses across the country. Since our creation more than 45 years ago, working with every administration and the U.S. Congress, NeighborWorks America has fostered a laboratory of new methods and ideas alongside our national network to expand housing supply in both the apartment and single-family sectors.”
The eight NeighborWorks network organizations to receive SEH grants this round are:
Community Development Long Island, NY Deed Restricted Shared Equity $50,000
DevNW, OR Community Land Trust $50,000
MiSide, MI Community Land Trust $50,000
Neighborhood Housing Services of OK Deed Restricted Shared Equity $50,000
NeighborWorks Green Bay, WI Community Land Trust $50,000
NeighborWorks Northeastern PA Deed Restricted Shared Equity $50,000
Community Ventures Corp, KY Deed Restricted Shared Equity $25,000
Champlain Housing Trust, VT Community Land Trust $50,000
For every dollar of federal appropriation in fiscal year 2024, NeighborWorks and its network attracted an additional $71 of public and private sector direct investment in communities, and:
- Helped 105,000 families and individuals by providing counseling on financial capability, pre-purchase, post-purchase or foreclosure issues.
- Created 16,300 new homeowners.
- Owned and/or managed 211,900 rental homes.
- Created and/or maintained 48,900 jobs.
In addition to funding, NeighborWorks supports its network's ability to develop and maintain the supply of affordable housing through virtual and in-person professional development opportunities including the NeighborWorks Training Institute. These initiatives enhance and enrich NeighborWorks network organizations and other affordable builders, affirming our pledge to strengthen the sector's capacity to increase residential development and nurture enduring change in communities nationwide.
Complementary resources providing insight into NeighborWorks' impact:
About NeighborWorks America
For more than 45 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a Congressionally chartered national nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community safer and more prosperous. 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 build homes and apartments, expanding the supply of affordable housing in every community; provide financial counseling and coaching that increases self-sufficiency; encourage resident leadership, and collaborate with local stakeholders in the areas of health, economic development, employment and education. In Fiscal Year 2024, for every dollar received from Congress, the NeighborWorks network and NeighborWorks America attracted an additional $71 of investment from other sources.
