City First Enterprises (CFE), a DC nonprofit community development incubator, has won an award through the Social Innovation Fund, a White House initiative designed to support, grow, and replicate the nation’s most innovative and effective nonprofit solutions.
CFE was selected as one of 10 Community Innovators from across the country creating permanently affordable housing. CFE’s housing program, City First Homes, was launched with the active support and funding of the District of Columbia. Since 2010 City First Homes has created more than 50 permanently affordable homes for DC’s working families.
The award was made by NCB Capital Impact, which increased the Social Innovation Fund’s impact with a matching grant from the Ford Foundation, to support Community Innovators that are “exemplary stewards of affordable homeownership programs for lower income families.”
City First Homes helps working families purchase homes when they would otherwise be priced out of the expensive DC market. Homeowners receive upfront homebuyer education, down-payment assistance, and ongoing support. In exchange, new homeowners share future appreciation with future buyers, keeping the home affordable without additional public subsidy. Based on a model with extremely low foreclosure rates, the program helps working families build assets while preserving subsidy dollars for long-term impact. It also helps create sustainably mixed-income communities in gentrifying, transit-oriented neighborhoods.
CFHomes is creating permanent affordability in every Ward of the District. Most of the units result from CFHomes’ successful foreclosure response efforts restoring blighted properties to revitalize distressed DC communities, and providing funding before a foreclosure to help families stay in their homes.
“We believe the future of Washington DC depends in part upon making sure low- and moderate-income working families aren’t priced out of DC’s neighborhoods – today and tomorrow,” said Dave Wilkinson, Executive Director of CFE. “We find homes near transit, with nice amenities, help potential buyers buy their first homes, and together ensure that the homes will stay affordable for the next generation of buyers, and the next, and the next.”
Washington, DC’s Mayor Vincent C. Gray noted that the District has long been committed to strengthening housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families in many ways: “We know a successful city is based on successful working families, and we are pleased to have launched and be a continuing partner with CFE in creating new opportunities in DC. We’re gratified to have the additional support and recognition from the Social Innovation Fund and the Ford Foundation for the innovative work going on in our city.”
Washington, DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said that “District residents are the direct beneficiaries of the White House program’s recognition of City First Enterprises as a national model of innovation for affordable housing ownership. CFE works in every DC Ward, using a model proven to protect against foreclosure to create sustainable affordability. The federal support will help CFE continue to work to protect affordability in the face of gentrification and loss of diversity.”
CFE along with other award winners around the country will receive $130,000 in the first year of the potential multi-year grant, and will raise equal private matching funds. CFE also will receive direct technical assistance, implement new tracking software, and participate in a long-term impact study led by the Urban Institute.
About City First Enterprises: CFE is a nonprofit incubator of community development solutions in Washington, DC. During the past ten years CFE has launched City First Bank – now a $170 million community development financial institution (CDFI) serving the region’s low- and moderate-income neighborhoods – and designed City First New Markets, a bank affiliate providing $370 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) for community development projects in the region’s under-served neighborhoods. City First Homes is CFE’s affordable housing and foreclosure-response initiative that has attracted over $15 million in public and private financing to create sustainably affordable homes for working families. For more, see cfenterprises.org and cfhomes.org
About NCB Capital Impact: A national, nonprofit community development finance institution, NCB Capital Impact provides financial services and technical assistance to help make high-quality housing, health care, healthy foods, and education more accessible and attainable, and eldercare more dignified and respectful. Capital Impact has used its depth of experience, cooperative approach, and diverse network of alliances to generate over $1.7 billion in critical investments that create a high quality of life for low income people and communities. www.ncbcapitalimpact.org.
About the Social Innovation Fund: The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service that improves the lives of people in low-income U.S. communities. Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Social Innovation Fund and selected local and national grantmakers co-invest in programs that increase the scale of community-based solutions that have evidence of real impact in the areas of youth development, economic opportunity or healthy futures. Every Federal dollar invested is matched with private funds, and all programs are rigorously evaluated. As a result, the most effective approaches can be expanded to reach more people in need and key lessons can be captured and broadly shared. To learn more visit www.NationalService.gov/Innovation
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