Winners of Nationwide Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge Named

Although the housing challenges facing millions of Americans often seem intractable, organizations from across the U.S. are collaborating to deliver fresh, innovative and scalable ideas to create housing affordability solutions with support from Enterprise Community Partners and Wells Fargo.

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Through the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge, a nationwide competition that began in January 2020, six winning organizations will each receive $2 million in grants and two years of technical assistance valued at $500,000 to bring innovative concepts to market. Winning breakthrough ideas include building more equitable, healthier and resilient homes that radically reduce carbon emissions, re-engineering the affordable housing delivery system, and rethinking community reentry by building dignity through a home.

“Housing affordability is directly tied to racial equity, and both are urgent issues fundamentally impacting every community in our country. That is what makes the Breakthrough Challenge so important right now,” said Priscilla Almodovar, chief executive officer at Enterprise Community Partners. “We’re thrilled to support our grantees and the next generation of housing solutions through these six visionary proposals. Enterprise is incredibly grateful for the generous financial resources and tremendous expertise brought by the Wells Fargo team throughout the competition.”

With three focus areas — housing construction, housing finance, and resident services and support — the competition drew close to 900 applications from 49 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. After two application rounds, 15 finalists were invited to offer a detailed application proposal and present a 10-minute virtual pitch to an independent panel of judges composed of leading national affordable housing and community development experts. Two winners were chosen from each focus area.

“Too often good ideas are overlooked because they need expertise and resources to bring them to scale,” said Nate Hurst, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation. “We are delighted to join Enterprise Community Partners to engage creative innovators with know-how, technical skill, and imagination, who are now awarded catalytic funding to transform their housing affordability ideas into real solutions on the ground.”