HOUSTON – With home prices, rent and evictions on the rise, one of the nation’s largest banks is investing in the future of affordable housing in Houston.
JPMorgan Chase is giving $3.3 million to four local non-profits that will use the grants to help Houstonians buy homes and rent affordable apartments.
“We’re continuing to look at our strategy and see how we can deploy more capital to get more homeowners into homes so we can get more people that are working very hard every single day to make a living actually afford a home so they can have wealth for their families and generations to come,” said Dorian Cockrell, Vice President Global Philanthropy for JPMorgan Chase.
The grant recipients include:
The Houston Community Land Trust will receive $1.2 million for its new Homebuyer Choice Program, providing a local public subsidy to low- and moderate-income home buyers to purchase affordable homes in Harris County.
Prior to the launch of the Homebuyer Choice Program (HCP), only new-build homes were eligible for the program. The land trust works to combat the displacement of minority residents from gentrifying neighborhoods and to decrease the homeownership gap between white homeowners and homeowners of color. HCLT homebuyers are 96% African American and all are at/below 80% area median income.
The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, a recently designated HUD EnVision Center is getting $1 million to expand its multi-faceted and comprehensive housing counseling and real estate preservation efforts to minimize the impact of gentrification in Houston’s historic Fifth Ward.
Part of the funding will support a new initiative of clustering small, single-family cottages on adjacent lots to provide affordable housing to long-time residents.
Avenue Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit dedicated to building affordable homes and strengthening communities, has received a $1 million investment from JPMorgan Chase & Co. for its Social Impact Fund aimed at acquiring and preserving affordable housing in Houston. The fund, announced earlier this year, was established to maintain affordability at rental properties at a time when working families are increasingly cost-burdened by rising housing costs.
Avenue’s Social Impact Fund will enable the non-profit to purchase properties from apartment owners in Houston who are interested in selling their assets to a responsible new owner that will preserve affordability for long-term tenants. The investment focuses on Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH,) which includes Class B and Class C residential rental properties that are affordable but remain unsubsidized through any federal program. Rents are generally lower when compared to the regional housing market, providing an affordable option for low- and moderate-income households.
Local Initiatives Support Corporation Houston has received $150,000 to support the formation and management of a learning community focused on housing preservation. Members of the learning community will include, but are not limited to, nonprofit recipients of JPMorgan Chase grants, such as Avenue.