New York’s Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) and San Francisco’s Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) are the recipient organizations who will benefit from the fund’s strategic partnership engagement, technical assistance, and financial support. They join 2018 CLT recipients Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County in Florida and Homes4Families in Los Angeles, California.  

In New York, UHAB’s award will support the conversion of a four-story building in Sunnyside, Queens into shared-equity housing at 45-14 42nd Street. Of the building’s 20 walk-up units, 12 are currently occupied by immigrant families from Southeast Asia and Latin America, reports Yahoo!. The conversion “presents a unique opportunity for minority communities to collectively own and operate their housing in an increasingly unaffordable city,” explains UHAB Executive Director Andrew Reicher in the report. “The Accelerator Fund allows us to bring the permanent affordability and stewardship of a CLT, and help [sic] us reach deeper affordability levels for both existing and future incoming residents.”

According to Grounded Solutions CEO Tony Pickett, “We must build awareness of the shared-equity model’s wealth-creation potential for communities—specifically communities of color—and the CLT Accelerator Fund helps us do that,” citing the $14,000 in earned equity the median shared-equity household accumulates after a median initial investment of $1,875. Nearly 6 out of 10 shared equity homeowners use their earned equity to later purchase a traditional market-rate home, Pickett adds.