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Overview

rowhouses

Homes are the key building blocks of every community. Hurricane Katrina demolished many of these building blocks and we’re now trying to put them back together. The Unified New Orleans Plan—shepherded and supported by the Greater New Orleans Foundation—identified the lack of quality, affordable housing as the primary obstacle to recovery in the city. In response, the Foundation brought together 22 local and national foundations to create a five-year, $25 million initiative designated for community revitalization.

The Community Revitalization Fund has three main goals: 1) to increase housing production, 2) strengthen the affordable housing sector as a whole (including public policy and human capital), and 3) promote smart growth development principles. Over the course of five years, the Foundation will award grants to local nonprofits, sector-serving organizations, government, and advocacy groups that are working to promote equitable and effective housing development.

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

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.

Reporting Guidelines

For more information on reporting guidelines for the Community Revitalization Program, click here.

Beyond Grantmaking

Here are just some of the ways that Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF) staff members add value to the Foundation’s grantmaking work:

In the realm of Community Revitalization (specifically centered on housing), the Foundation’s role is and will be that of change-agent. GNOF recognizes its important role in convening diverse constituencies to address community needs. The Foundation links specific initiatives to build on the work begun in Orleans Parish to provide affordable housing and promote innovation in land use.

Community Land Trust Initiative

The Community Revitalization Fund has helped to support and actively participates in the Ford Foundation’s efforts to preserve housing affordability and grow community equity through shared equity models of real estate development. As an advisory member of the New Orleans Community Land Trust Initiative, the Fund is also engaged in conversations about how to link pilot efforts in Orleans Parish with those in St. Tammany Parish and North Gulfport, MS.

Building a Coalition to Support Affordable Housing

The Fund is also fostering a nascent coalition of housing developers and advocates to promote affordable housing regionally and statewide. A broad coalition of advocates in support of these efforts – from the non-profit sector, public sector, and the business community – is necessary to change prevalent views about the need for affordable housing and discriminatory attitudes about the families who need it. Additional advocacy and education are required to change the public perception of affordable housing so that public resources are not threatened in the future.

Reaching Out to Uncommon Allies

To that end, the Fund is exploring multiple strategies to broaden this coalition to include more advocates from the business community. A recent grant to Enterprise Corporation of the Delta for a state-wide LIHTC Equity Fund will enable some outreach; another strategy is to work with GNO Inc. to develop a regional Employer Assisted Housing program. This holds promise also due to the Center for Planning Excellence’s efforts to include the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce in complementary conversations.

Data Needs

The Fund supports GNOCDC in publishing the Housing in the New Orleans Metro series of data briefs, which examine housing supply and demand, prevalent wages and economic opportunity, and commuter patterns throughout the Metro Area.

Give Us Your Feedback

Visit the Goals, Objectives & Rationales section of our website to give us feedback on our community revitalization work. We welcome your comments and suggestions.