Assist Nonprofit Housing Developers

Nonprofit housing developers have often delivered low-income housing in creative ways. They are one of the largest owners of low-income housing and have a longstanding interest in preserving benefits for low- and moderate-income tenants. Although Foundation-supported cdcs and others have been highly successful in housing development as part of their community revitalization efforts, additional work must be done to enable communities to produce a steady supply of good low-income housing and to encourage innovative methods of developing such housing.

Foundation grants and program-related investments have focused on:

• support for innovative local or regional capital pools as sources of flexible capital;

• support for the development of secondary markets for such social investors as lisc, the Enterprise Foundation, and community loan funds;

• support for city and state housing partnerships and intermediaries that streamline the housing development process for nonprofit developers;

• support for new development models that offer innovative approaches to producing low-income housing.

Link Emergency Shelter and Permanent Housing

The plight of homeless families has awakened state and local social service agencies to the importance of permanent housing solutions. Yet the programs they sponsor usually provide only temporary relief through emergency shelter or transitional housing. Rarely are these stopgap measures integrated within long-term housing programs. Nevertheless, there is a growing recognition that preventive measures and linkages between permanent and transitional housing are keys to a comprehensive solution to homelessness. An example of a preventive approach is the Massachusetts statewide housing services program, which works to resolve conflicts between poor families and landlords, thereby preventing evictions. And in