On August 30, the Strategic Growth Council approved awards totaling $757 million to 21 distinct Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program projects in California.

Tina Rogert manages a jobs training program and furniture store in Everett, Washington and recently moved into a home of her own. Moving up in a job and getting your own place may seem like a typical sequence of events. But Tina’s path has not been smooth or ordinary. Tina credits the support she received from job training and housing organizations HopeWorks and Housing Hope with her ability to rebound from periods of addiction and homelessness.

In 2021, as the nation was still grappling with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of American renters were facing another challenge – increasingly unaffordable housing. According to our latest analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the number and share of renters that year reporting rental housing cost burdens rose across all subsets of renters by race/ethnicity and incomes, with the largest increases observed among renters of color and those with extremely low incomes.

While Colorado was once considered “relatively affordable,” that has changed over the past decades, said Jennie Rodgers, Enterprise’s vice president and market leader for Rocky Mountain and Tribal Nations and Rural Communities. In fact, affordable housing was rated the top concern people are grappling with across the state, according to a recent survey by the Colorado Health Foundation. “Right now, many people here are cost burdened, and many are even on the verge of eviction,” Rodgers said.

From permanent supportive housing to an early childhood learning center to retail space for a full-service grocery, Enterprise proudly provided financial support and technical assistance to these new developments.

Brandon Adkins teaches kitchen skills to people who want to turn their lives around. He realizes, however, that the food these people are learning to chop, prepare, and cook, is not the most important ingredient. “Food is a tool,” said Brandon, who is culinary trainer at Kindred Kitchen, a job skills training program In Everett, Washington. “What’s most important is that these individuals gain self-esteem and the ability to know they are capable of changing their lives for the better.”

The Purple Line is a nearly $10 billion, 16.2-mile light rail project that is set to connect Maryland suburbs in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties. The rail line will enhance neighborhood connectivity, and groups like the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) see this project as a way to uplift historically marginalized communities through support and investment. At the same time, it poses a threat to the very communities it aims to serve, even before its construction reaches completion.