What We Do: Community Initiatives: Field Building: Ford MI/MR

Community Initiatives

· Ford MI/MR

The Ford Foundation has a program interest in promoting successful outcomes in mixed-income, mixed-race housing in the United States. This program interest is based on the assertion that one of the major contributors to persistent poverty is its concentration. American housing policies and patterns have led to significant racial and economic segregation.

Through its Mixed-Income/Mixed-Race (MI/MR) Housing Initiative, the Ford Foundation has supported efforts to realize opportunities for racial integration and upward economic mobility of the poor within mixed-income housing. It has also supported the design of tools to help revitalizing communities avoid displacement of low-income families, and ensure that original residents benefit from mixed-income development.
To move the MI/MR agenda forward, the Ford Foundation has:

Provided targeted grants focused on practical research and/or documentation that advances the field
Convened panels of experts to contribute ideas to the development of mixed-income, racially integrated housing at specific locations
Organized exploratory convenings to consider particular topics and challenges facing practitioners and the field in general

HOPE VI, Community Builders, & MI/MR Housing Initiative

Over the past decade, the development of mixed-income housing has emerged as an alternative approach to segregation by income in American housing programs. The federal HOPE VI public housing transformation program is an important example. HOPE VI creates attractive, diverse communities where failed public housing projects once stood. The program couples “bricks and mortar” development funds with substantial resources to promote economic self-sufficiency among residents. Given its scope, HOPE VI yields important insights into how to make such initiatives work for families, for developments, and for neighborhoods.

As a developer, property manager and service coordinator, Community Builders has completed HOPE VI and other large-scale redevelopment projects in cities across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest.

Our experience has shown that, where the market is ready, a high quality housing development, with first-rate program supports, culturally sensitive staff, and broadly appealing community events/activities can achieve income diversity – public housing residents, working poor families, and market rate renters and owners living side by side. In some neighborhoods, significant racial diversity is also possible.

With generous support from the Ford Foundation’s Mixed-Income/Mixed-Race Housing Initiative, Community Builders has prepared a Practitioner’s Guide to share resources with affordable housing developers, community leaders, and policymakers. Click here to learn more.

	Comprehensive Neighborhood Revitalization




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