As we head into 2025 amid some of the biggest challenges the affordable housing industry has ever faced, Enterprise’s partners continue to guide us with their needs, their insights, and their know-how. Two years ago, we re-established the Enterprise Community Leadership Council, or ECLC, to ensure our work is meeting needs and providing effective solutions, and that group – comprised of leaders from across our sector – has proven pivotal in guiding our work.

In addition to all the ways we informally tap the ECLC to help shape our work to produce and preserve more affordable, more equitable, and more resilient communities, these leaders have stepped up over the past year in a variety of ways. 

In the spring, leaders from the ECLC joined Enterprisers and our colleagues to crisscross Capitol Hill and make the case for more federal support for affordable housing. Enterprise has one of the largest national, state, and local policy teams in the country, but being able to show up alongside our ECLC leaders gives us the credibility and ground knowledge we need to make the most effective case to legislators.

“We can’t solve our nation’s affordability crisis if we don’t first commit the resources to build and preserving affordable rental homes on a much greater scale nationwide,” Ismael Guerrero, president and CEO of Mercy Housing, chair of the Enterprise Community Leadership Council, and member of the Enterprise Board, told lawmakers.

Affordable housing operators across the country have been sharing with us their concerns about escalating costs and all the ways those financial pressures impact their ability to serve residents. ECLC leaders have provided a critical sounding board at numerous convenings and meetings with owners and operators nationwide. 

In just one example, ECLC leaders joined us for a critical meeting with our Equitable Path Forward cohort in Atlanta to discuss how they’re navigating this difficult time. And as we have developed new programs and initiatives, ECLC members have informed our strategies, policy proposals, and partnerships.

“Because we will never ensure everyone has a stable home on our own, we need a robust industry that embraces best practices to achieve our mission and vision,” said ECLC leader and Ability Housing President and CEO Shannon Nazworth.

While Enterprise certainly draws on the expertise of the ECLC, the group also serves as a forum of leaders where practitioners can share best practices and knowledge across the sector. ECLC member Oji Alexander is CEO of People’s Housing+, a New Orleans-based nonprofit that seeks to address the city’s affordable housing crisis by advancing multi-generational wealth and combating systemic racism.

“This work is hard, and what keeps me going is knowing there are unbelievable leaders and practitioners out there and we are not alone,” Alexander said.

We’ve added four new members to the Council, all of whom are respected and tenured leaders within their field and long-term partners of Enterprise:

We look forward to all the exciting work our partners will undertake in the year to come. Enterprise stands ready to be their partner and cheerleader.
 

Partner Sustainability and Growth