Center for Community Change: Issues: Housing

History of the Center’s Work on Affordable Housing

For more than 35 years, the Center for Community Change has worked with grassroots organizations in some of the poorest areas of the country. Through a combination of technical assistance, public policy efforts, and targeted research and training, we have strengthened the capacity of nonprofit organizations to deliver and preserve affordable housing, while raising public awareness about housing issues and gathering evidence for needed reforms.

It’s been our longstanding relationship with grassroots organizations in low-income communities that has distinguished our work in this sector.

Up until 2002 (the year we revamped our housing work), the Center’s primary housing agenda reflected a synthesis of strategies to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing. While these twin goals remain a focus of the organization going forward, we’re now looking to substantially change how we do our work in order to move to scale through grassroots organizing, mass mobilization and policy.

Over the past three decades, our housing staff has been involved in a range of activities, from nonprofit housing development to homeownership issues, from public housing to housing trust funds. What follows is a summary of 35 years in housing:

Creating Housing Trust Funds

For the last 18 years, the Housing Trust Fund Project of the Center for Community Change has been the sole provider of technical assistance to organizations and agencies working to create these special funds. Today more than 350 housing trust funds operate in cities, counties, and states throughout the country. These funds provide approximately $800 million each year to support affordable housing. The Housing Trust Fund Project has been the primary provider of technical assistance to more than half of these housing trust funds.
Distribute a quarterly newsletter, Housing Trust Fund Project News, to over 2000 readers.
Produce special publications that document the performance of local housing trust funds. This includes the Housing Trust Fund Progress Report.
A founding member of the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign (NHTF). As part of this effort, we prepared an economic analysis, Home Sweet Home: Why America Needs a National Housing Trust Fund, which shows the employment and business benefits that could be realized by the legislative proposal. The study found that every $1 spent through local and state housing trust funds leverages $9 from private, nonprofit and other governmental spending.

Preserving Public Housing

Helped public housing residents launch ENPHRONT, a national residents coalition that works on displacement and resident participation issues.
Worked with ENPHRONT and other groups to secure a federal requirement that every public housing authority have at least one assisted resident on its governing board; also helped to secure $27 million in federal monies to fund resident participation activities in public housing.
In partnership with ENPHRONT, provided training and support to tenant councils and community organizations working to fight displacement and demolition stemming from HUD’s HOPE VI program; Produced A HOPE Unseen: Voices from the Other Side of HOPE VI, a seven-city report on the impact of HOPE VI on the lives of families in public housing.

Combating Predatory Lending

Provided training and other support to groups working to address the negative result of market pressures – increasing home mortgage foreclosures, predatory lending, inferior loan products -- that are forcing low-income and minority owners out of their homes and often into destitution.
Released a groundbreaking research report, Risk or Race: Racial Disparities in the Subprime Refinance Market. This study was the first to analyze subprime mortgage lending in all 331 metropolitan areas nationwide.

Expanding Homeownership

Created the Neighborhood Revitalization Project (NRP), first conceptualized 28 years ago when community organizations approached the Center to help them access capital for home purchase and renovation.
Along with other national and local organizations, helped to enact The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Both have made it possible to document and influence mortgage lending patterns in local communities. CRA in particular has generated over $400 billion in mortgage capital to low-income and minority communities.
Provided training and technical assistance to community organizations on a variety of community reinvestment topics. This has included bringing groups together to discuss dramatic changes in the financial services industry and holding “cluster” meetings to allow groups to learn from each other and build strategic relationships for grassroots action.

Helping Groups Understand and Influence the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program

Created the National Citizens Monitoring Project, a special initiative that helped more than 100 local groups monitor how CDBG money was being used.
Recognized as the leading source of training and technical expertise for community groups on the mechanics of the CDBG program.
Created numerous publications on the CDBG program, including CDBG: An Action Guide, CDBG: A Very Brief Description and Public Participation in CDBG: A Short Outline.

Strengthening Community-based Housing Development

Provided training and technical assistance specifically for nonprofit housing developers. Nonprofit housing developers are the primary source for the new construction of housing dedicated to low-income families. And, as such, they are essential to the expansion of the supply of affordable housing.
Through several unique strategies, nurtured housing development in places where it might not have occurred otherwise. For example, created peer support networks in remote regions of the country to promote learning, share needed advice, and pool resources. This included the Northwest Rural Collaborative in Idaho and Montana. In addition, the Center was the leading source of support for urban Indian centers that provide affordable housing in Arizona and Southern California.