G.R.O.W.T.H Initiative
The Generating Real Opportunities for Work Through Housing (GROWTH) Initiative is NCRC’s response to our members’ requests for greater assistance in preserving affordable homeownership opportunities for and in low-and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods.
GROWTH is a national, investor-community collaborative centered around the NCRC Housing Rehab Fund (“HRF”), which will be a $50 million dollar real estate fund that will provide Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) benefit to the fund’s investors. GROWTH will also address two critical needs in our communities: job training/placement and housing/credit counseling for homebuyers.
GROWTH will accomplish the mission by identifying single family houses in low/moderate income neighborhoods in various parts of the country that will be rehabbed into quality, affordable homes utilizing local, skilled labor. The homes will be sold, or leased on a short-term basis (24-36 months), to LMI neighborhood residents, all of whom will receive pre- and post-purchase housing counseling and financial coaching.
To help create jobs, GROWTH will create a pre-apprenticeship program where local residents will work side by side with GROWTH’s General Contractors (primarily community development corporations) to rehabilitate the houses. The workforce component will create jobs in the construction trades, while building skills for a viable future career for LMI residents.
The GROWTH project targets LMI communities where private capital investment has been absent. GROWTH will help revitalize communities by: bringing in private capital, rehabbing houses, increasing access to homeownership for neighborhood residents, empowering residents through housing counseling and financial coaching, creating job opportunities and providing skills for viable, future careers to participants of the pre-apprenticeship programs.
Goals for the program include:
- Acquire 2,000+ homes and then renovate and sell or lease them via a rent-to-own model
- Stabilize neighborhoods by creating a critical mass of rehabbed homes
- Create new construction trade jobs
Mr. Ed Gorman III, NCRC’s Chief Community Development Officer, is leading the GROWTH Initiative.
