Community Revitalization – Goals, Objectives & Rationales

Goals

In 2007, leading local and national foundations concerned about the shortage of affordable housing in New Orleans created the $25 million Community Revitalization Fund at the Greater New Orleans Foundation. The Fund has a mandate to support activities that seek to create—or are a component of—a working system that generates equitable housing and community development at scale.  A working system is defined as one that:

• Produces high-quality, diverse, mixed-income and mixed-use development that is architecturally, culturally, and ecologically appropriate, as well as environmentally sustainable;
• Engages a diversity of citizens in the community revitalization process and formalizes or sustains citizen engagement in community development;
• Promotes accountability in government and the effectiveness of public systems;
• Results in the creation of a number of housing units that is commensurate with the scale of the crisis at hand and at a pace that dignifies all displaced New Orleanians;
• Increases the capacity of the locally-based housing production systems, including nonprofit and for-profit developers.

Objectives

The Community Revitalizaton Fund strives to:

• Strengthen the affordable housingsystem within the City of New Orleans such that it is more professional, more productive, and better designed.
• Fund housing production, either directly or indirectly.
• Promote the redevelopment of New Orleans according to equitable and Smart Growth principles. GNOF’s goal is that New Orleans should become a cohesive city of mixed-income and mixed-race neighborhoods, each anchored by community facilities, schools, hospitals, pedestrian-friendly streets, and dynamic public open spaces.

Rationales

Why does the Community Revitalization Fund focus on housing?

One of New Orleans’ long-standing challenges has been the production of affordable housing within mixed-income communities. The post-Katrina housing crisis dramatically underscored the necessity of removing the obstacles to housing development. There was general agreement amongst diverse groups of citizens that the lack of affordable housing was the primary obstacle to the City’s recovery.

How do you define “affordable”?

The Community Revitalization Fund defines affordable based on a commonly used standard: a household’s monthly housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of its monthly income. The Fund wants to ensure access to both rental and ownership opportunities that are affordable to low- and moderate-income New Orleanians.

How do you propose to strengthen the affordable housing system?

The Fund seeks to strengthen the affordable housing system within the City of New Orleans by providing resources that build the human capacity and production capacity of both the public sector and the nonprofit sector; provide directly or provide access to funding that is timely, flexible, and reliable; engage citizens in decision-making about the future of their neighborhoods; and educate practitioners and the general public about policy, programs, and best practices that support redevelopment.

Why do you focus on housing production?

134,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures. GNOF’s goal is that thousands of units of rehabilitated and newly-constructed homes will be made available to New Orleanians within the Katrina diaspora and to others seeking to repopulate the city. These units will be high quality, ecologically safe and healthy, and affordable within mixed-income settings.

What do you mean by “equitable” and “Smart Growth” principles?

GNOF’s goal is that New Orleans become a city of mixed-income and mixed-race neighborhoods, each anchored by community facilities, schools, hospitals, pedestrian-friendly streets, and dynamic public open spaces and that these “neighborhoods of choice” be available to and accessible by all residents. The Fund supports the efforts of New Orleanians who became “citizen planners” during post-Katrina planning processes, helping them to move into leadership roles and become effective stewards of the implementation process. Finally, in order to preserve the significant public and private investment in rebuilding housing and other infrastructure, the Fund supports the successful integration of sustainable and other green building practices in neighborhood development.

Why do you support public-private sector collaboration?

Hurricane Katrina caused over $100 billion in damage, and the federal government committed a significant amount to recovery efforts. Even with this significant infusion of public resources, there are facets of the recovery that public funding cannot support. The use of private, philanthropic resources can both fill gaps and leverage public resources such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Community Development Block Grants, and HOME funds so that redevelopment projects can move forward.

Theory of Change

Crafted by the Community Revitalization program staff with input from the grantees, the funding partners and the evaluators, this document articulates a vision and a theory of change that drives our grantmaking for impact in housing development in New Orleans.  Read Theory of Change

Guidelines

Requests for funding from the Community Revitalization Fund must do one or more of the following:

• Address a specific need or barrier to housing development.
• Increase expertise and/or capacity within the housing development industry.
• Contribute to the capacity of government, nonprofit and/or for-profit developers to produce equitable, high-quality, mixed-income housing at scale (at least 50 units per year).
• Deliver important information and/or technical expertise on best practices in housing and community development.
• Collaborate across the public and private sectors to create innovative financing programs or housing policies that will increase the pace of the city’s repopulation.

For more information on how to apply for a grant from the Community Revitalization Program, click here.

An August 2009 evaluation of the Community Revitalization Fund, titled, Learning in Two Directions, affirms that philanthropy can impact the housing development system in New Orleans. As the City’s largest private, flexible, dedicated funding stream for community development, the Fund has established itself as more than a funder – in just two years, we have emerged as a key player in New Orleans community development.

To download a copy of our latest progress report, Learning in Two Directions: The Community Revitalization Fund – August 2009, click here.

Give Us Your Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions on our community revitalization work.  Do our goals, objectives, rationales, and guidelines make sense to you?  How can we improve our work?