Elevating What Works
These grantees are working across sectors to advance local solutions to increase access to affordable, stable, quality homes that provide access to education, health, and economic mobility, particularly centering the voices and increasing choice and opportunity for and with people of color.
Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center
Through its initial FHO grant, LaFHAC mobilized millions in Emergency Rental Assistance funds, influenced the adoption of inclusive practices to ensure more families can find affordable homes to rent, and supported work that will lead to 200+ new deeply affordable units in high opportunity neighborhoods. LaFHAC continues to lead cross-sector efforts across New Orleans and Louisiana to support housing stability and increase renter protections.
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FHO is now awarding LaFAHC a one-year renewal grant for $150,000 to support their efforts to (1) ensure tenants can access legal counsel in eviction court, (2) ensure rental homes meet basic health and safety standards, and (3) increase affordable housing in well-resourced neighborhoods.
Welcome Home Coalition (WHC)
With support from FHO’s initial Elevating What Works grant, the Welcome Home Coalition (WHC) of Portland, Oregon, has:
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centered people who have experienced housing insecurity in leadership and priority-setting efforts,
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played a key role in raising $2.5 billion over the next decade for flexible, supportive housing services,
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worked with the city to improve Transit-Oriented Development guidelines to include deeper affordability provisions, and
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supported efforts to effectively eliminate single-family zoning in the City of Portland, thereby increasing opportunities for the creation of affordable housing.
A one-year grant renewal for $150,000 will support WHC to organize and support a cohort of individuals with lived experience of houselessness or housing insecurity to participate in a cross-sector, regional planning initiative designed to end the chronic homeless crisis and ensure that the planning process truly advances equitable systems change.
Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) and Family Housing Fund (FHFund)
With support from an FHO grant, the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) and Family Housing Fund (FHFund) partnered with Prosperity’s Front Door (PFD) to improve housing stability for hundreds of low-income families in the Twin Cities by expanding access to eviction prevention resources. Through these efforts, PFD also produced and released Minnesota’s first-ever Housing Scorecard to track progress on the six goals and body of recommendations set by Minnesota’s Housing Task Force in 2018.
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FHO is awarding GMHF and FHFund a one-year renewal grant for $150,000 to expand housing court and mediation services across the Twin Cities metro area and integrate new federal resources into eviction prevention and housing stability systems.
Partnership
for Housing Affordability (PHA)
PHA in Richmond, VA, will receive a one-year renewal grant, joining the cohort of grantee partners whose work was renewed in the Fall of 2022. FHO’s initial grant supported the implementation of the Richmond Regional Housing Framework -- a three-year, solutions-oriented action plan for increasing housing affordability in the Richmond region.
Through this work they already achieved zoning changes to allow for emergency and multi-unit housing and other flexible structures; developed a resident and community-led equitable development scorecard; and increased funder commitments to address the racial wealth gap. FHO’s renewal funding will help expand cross-sector collaboration; deepen the Partnership’s leadership influence on racial justice funding; and continue implementation of the Richmond Regional Housing Framework, emphasizing housing opportunities and wealth building for low-income residents of color.
Policy, Advocacy, and Organizing
Together, these organizations are bringing together cross-sector coalitions for successful advocacy campaigns, making sure voices of people who are affected by policies are centered in the work, and taking a systems/structural approach to housing justice.
Alliance for Housing Justice
AHJ has successfully mobilized and connected partners through its National Grassroots Table, supported six BIPOC-led grassroots organizations, and leveraged its National Housing Platform for policy change that centers the voices of directly impacted low-income people with support from more than 100 national, state and local organizations to win initiatives across the country that protect renters and advance a collective vision for housing justice.
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FHO is awarding Alliance for Housing Justice a one-year renewal grant for $250,000 to (1) re-orient AHJ’s internal structures to match the political and organizing moment, (2) align the grassroots housing justice movement and coordinate with allies, (3) amplify the grassroots housing justice movement and priorities to a broad audience, and (4) support campaigns and activities to foster learning and cooperation across different localities.
Opportunity Starts at
Home
With a start-up grant from FHO, the Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign has engaged and mobilized over 100 multi-sector national organizations as well as 15 multi-sector coalitions. OSAH was instrumental in bringing non-housing organizations together to understand the importance of stable housing to their missions and in supporting these organizations to identify common policy priorities that are important to their constituencies. These conversations ultimately led to the re-introduction of two significant bipartisan housing proposals and supported the enactment of billions of dollars in funding for emergency rental assistance (ERA), homelessness response, and successive extensions of the CDC eviction moratorium. OSAH also successfully advanced and influenced an ambitious national housing-solutions agenda that raised significant political will and federal resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (While FHO funds were used to bring these diverse constituencies together to prioritize housing, no FHO funds were used to advance or influence legislation.)
FHO is awarding OSAH a one year renewal grant for $500,000 to (1) expand and strengthen multi-sector partners advancing affordable housing solutions, (2) increase public and decision-maker awareness, and (3) advance federal housing solutions by increasing political will.
Center for Community Change- Housing Trust Fund Project (HTFP)
The Housing Trust Fund Project (HTFP), an initiative of Community Change, operates as a clearinghouse of information on housing trust funds throughout the country, and provides technical assistance to organizations and agencies working to create or implement these funds. With FHO’s support, HTFP provided capacity building and technical assistance to housing advocates and 33 housing trust fund initiatives across the country. These efforts helped build advocacy capacity among BIPOC communities and organizations and led to $24 million in new resources for affordable homes in the past year alone. Providing intensive training and support, HTFP helped partners in California, Louisiana, Oregon, and Washington increase capacity and build public and political will. HTFP’s resident organizing networks ensured residents and people directly impacted by housing instability had a voice in the policy-making process.
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FHO is awarding Center for Community Change a one-year renewal grant for $250,000 to (1) increase state and local revenue for affordable housing, (2) secure federal stimulus funds for state and local housing trust fund (HTF) campaigns, (3) expand technical assistance to 10-15 emerging or ongoing HTF campaigns, (4) advance initiatives to protect renters, center racial justice and increase the power and influence of state resident organizing networks in California, Louisiana, Oregon, and Washington to advance housing policy; and (5) expand the current model and identify additional states for expansion in 2022.