Two Enterprise programs provided capital, grants and technical assistance to Northern California nonprofits to support affordable housing preservation by a Latinx-led organization in Oakland and to assist six Bay Area housing partners and residents recover from Covid-19.
Equitable Path Forward Award: Unity Council
We are proud to announce that the Spanish Speaking Unity Council, a Latinx-led organization based in the Fruitvale section of Oakland, is our first partner to receive an Equitable Path Forward (EPF) award. EPF is Enterprise’s five-year, $3.5 billion nationwide initiative to help dismantle the deeply-rooted legacy of racism in housing – from the types of homes that are built, where they’re built, who builds them and the wealth that is generated from them.
The award serves as a line of credit for the Unity Council to advance its preservation work to secure existing affordability for residents like those living in 55 apartments at 36th Avenue. Enterprise recently lent the Unity Council over $13 million from the Bay Area Preservation Pilot and the Housing for Health Fund seeded by Kaiser Permanente for three preservation properties.
We look forward to providing additional EPF partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations in Northern California in the years to come.
Emergency Action for Resident and Partner Stability
In response to the disruptive impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on affordable housing providers and residents, in mid-2020 Enterprise launched the Emergency Action for Resident and Partner Stability (EARPS) program. In Northern California, this program provided flexible grant support and technical assistance (TA) to six housing provider partners in the Bay Area.
- Community Housing Development Corporation
- East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
- Oakland Community Land Trust
- Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services
- San Francisco Community Land Trust
- The Unity Council
The six $100,000 grants distributed through this program were used to support staff salaries, organizational infrastructure and other operating costs that our partners incur while meeting the critical needs of low-income residents during the pandemic. The technical assistance is tailored to each organization’s current priorities and has so far included support through leadership transitions and hiring, strategies to stabilize commercial properties impacted by pandemic-related revenue loss and providing consultation on funding sources to move projects across the finish line. Enterprise staff regularly engage with grantees to better understand their changing needs and find new ways to support them through TA, our national cohorts and other efforts that bolster long-term capacity and sustainability.
The EARPS program is made possible through the generous support of Ballmer Group, CIT Bank, City National Bank, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, U.S. Bank, U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development, and Wells Fargo.