Alliance for Community Trees : Jobs

Deadline: March 20, 2009

The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) is soliciting proposals that address barriers to asset building for owners of manufactured homes. Organizations may apply in one or both of two categories: Development- new or replacement development projects in the construction phase (including in existing manufactured housing communities) and Policy- to advance the goals of the I'M HOME policy agenda.

Urban forestry organizations may be the lead on the application since trees and green infrastructure are eligible expenses, but there must be a manufactured housing component. There is an emphasis on projects that build partnership capacity between developers/affordable housing CDCs and others community leaders (including tree planting organizations) rather than one-time planting events at affordable housing sites.

Development Grants will be awarded up to $150,000, while Policy Grants will be awarded up to $75,000. The term of the grant will be 1-2 years. For all grants, a 1:1 match from external funders is required.

In 2005, CFED launched the multi-year, multimillion-dollar I'M HOME initiative with generous support from the Ford Foundation. They also collaborate with a range of other partners including ROC USA, NeighborWorks America, Fannie Mae, and the Opportunity Finance Network.

I'M HOME seeks to put its theory of change into practice by funding and providing technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to programs directly serving communities. In addition, I'M HOME staff, along with their national partners, undertake broader field-building and market-change activities such as communications efforts, convenings, coordination of policy work, and negotiation with housing lenders.

Homeownership anchors asset building in the United States. For very low-income families, home equity accounts for 80% of household wealth. Yet, for many of the more than 17 million Americans living in manufactured housing, homeownership has not always fulfilled its traditional wealth-building promise. Despite the prevalence of manufactured housing and its importance as a source of affordable homeownership, there are problems in the sector that have undermined its ability to provide the same level of financial security and wealth-building opportunities offered by traditional, site-built homeownership. When combined with negative stereotypes about the homes and their occupants, many who choose this type of housing are treated, in effect, as second-class homeowners.

The mission of I'M HOME is to ensure that families who choose to purchase manufactured homes reap benefits from the homeownership experience comparable to those enjoyed by buyers of traditional site-built homes. The basic hypothesis underlying I'M HOME is that:

1. improvements in home and installation quality
2. increased access to equitable mortgage and other key financial products
3. long-term control over the land beneath one's home
4. sound public policy will result in asset appreciation for owners of manufactured homes that more closely resembles that enjoyed by owners of comparable site-built homes.

The initiative's theory of change posits that high-quality new and replacement development and long-term control over homesites by homeowners are necessary preconditions for financial institutions to offer financing for these homes at terms comparable to mainstream mortgage products. Additionally, public policy changes in many areas (such as zoning, titling, resident purchase opportunities, consumer protections, allowable uses of public housing finance dollars, and government-sponsored entities' underwriting criteria) simultaneously undergird and enforce changes in the other three areas that lead to an increase in financial security and appreciation.