Innovators are invited to apply for grants of up to $3 million
to scale solutions to housing challenges
The Wells Fargo Foundation is expanding its commitment to
housing affordability through another $20 million competition with
Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) to find housing
solutions. The second Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge
will once again focus on three categories: Financing, Construction,
and Access and Resident Support. Innovators are invited to compete
for grants of up to $3 million and two years of technical
assistance to transform ideas into solutions that can be replicated
in the real-world. Applications will open on Jan. 31, 2023, and
submissions will be accepted until March 3, 2023.
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Construction workers build a MiCASiTA
home, one of six winners in the 2020 Housing Affordability
Breakthrough Challenge. The rural homeownership innovation is
designed for regions where poverty persists, offering a more
sustainable modular home that can expand as a homebuyer’s income,
credit, and family grow. Photo: Enterprise
Recent research shows that millions of U.S. households are
unable to find an affordable home, and nearly 7 million homes are
needed for renters with extremely low incomes to attain housing
stability in urban, suburban, and rural areas alike.
“We cannot address the serious housing affordability gap in this
country without improving access and creating cost savings that
will help boost supply. The Housing Affordability Breakthrough
Challenge has proven that investing in pathbreaking innovations at
the local level is a powerful way to build more equity and
affordability in our communities nationwide,” said Jacqueline
Waggoner, president of Enterprise’s Solutions Division. “We are
proud to join Wells Fargo once again as we focus on uplifting and
strengthening the most promising ideas to meet the urgent need for
more affordable homes and better serve individuals and families
across the country.”
“Wells Fargo created the Housing Affordability Breakthrough
Challenge to engage entrepreneurs and social innovators and advance
ideas that can improve housing opportunities for millions,” said
Otis Rolley, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation and head of
Philanthropy and Community Impact. “We urgently need to reimagine
access to quality affordable places to live in the U.S., which is
so tightly linked to economic stability, physical and mental
health, and ultimately generational wealth. This $20 million in
funding effectively doubles our commitment to find creative
solutions to this pressing problem.”
The 2023 Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge will
consider Native, rural, suburban, Tribal, and urban solutions which
have the potential to transform current practices and processes and
lay the groundwork for increased housing affordability, access, and
stability. Interested organizations can learn more about the
competition and how to apply on Enterprise’s website. Additional
resources will be available to help organizations prepare their
applications, including an informational web session on Feb. 2,
2023.
A variety of entities are eligible to submit an application,
including nonprofits, Tribal organizations, and mission-driven
for-profit entities in 38 markets where Wells Fargo and Enterprise
can provide additional infrastructure to support implementation and
help scale the winning innovations: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,
Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Through a three-round competition, winning innovations will be
selected by a panel of judges including leaders from Enterprise,
Wells Fargo, and nationally recognized community development and
housing experts. The winners are expected to be announced in fall
2023, with the opportunity to take part in a multi-year initiative
to share ideas and cultivate their innovations into solutions that
can be applied in communities across the U.S.
History of the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge
Launched in 2020, the inaugural Housing Affordability
Breakthrough Challenge attracted 800+ applications and ultimately
awarded six organizations with $2.5 million in grants each to
implement their wide-ranging solutions in housing construction,
finance, and resident support and services. Currently, a free
exhibition featuring those awardees, “A Better Way Home,” is on
display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., until
May 8, 2023.
One of the 2020 Breakthrough Challenge winners is cdcb | come
dream. come build. in Brownsville, Texas, which together with
buildingcommunityWORKSHOP created a modular housing innovation
called MiCASiTA — a more sustainable rural homeownership idea that
allows families to grow the size of their home as their finances
and dreams evolve.
“The Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge gave us the
time and resources to get to work,” said cdcb Executive Director
Nick Mitchell-Bennett. “And with that support, we now actually have
a sustainable modular housing product that can be replicated and
scaled.”
About Enterprise
Enterprise is a national nonprofit that exists to make a good
home possible for the millions of families without one. We support
community development organizations on the ground, aggregate and
invest capital for impact, advance housing policy at every level of
government, and build and manage communities ourselves. Since 1982,
we have invested $54 billion and created 873,000 homes across all
50 states – all to make home and community places of pride, power
and belonging. Join us at enterprisecommunity.org | Twitter:
@EnterpriseNow
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial
services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets,
proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of
small businesses in the U.S., and is a leading middle market
banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of
banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as
consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable
operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial
Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth &
Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 41 on Fortune’s 2022
rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we
serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a
sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing
affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a
low‑carbon economy.
News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also
available at Wells Fargo Stories.
News Release Category: WF-PESG: Philanthropy &
ESG
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230109005918/en/
Enterprise Community Partners Jordan Miller, 212-784-5703
JMiller@GroupGordon.com
Wells Fargo Foundation Melissa Murray
melissa.k.murray@wellsfargo.com
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