Sustainable Communities – Innovation Challenge 2022
Fannie Mae Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge 2022
Advancing greater equity in housing is rooted in Fannie Mae’s mission and integral to our environmental, social, and governance strategy. That's why we launched the Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge 2022: Advancing Racial Equity in Housing (IC22), a $5 million nationwide competition to identify innovative projects promoting racial equity in housing in the United States. IC22 builds on Fannie Mae's previous Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge, which awarded over $7 million in contracts to 13 organizations driving innovative projects that link affordable housing to education, health, and economic opportunities.
Now, through IC22, Fannie Mae has awarded five deliverable-based contracts to organizations who are implementing or scaling projects that address barriers many Black renters, homebuyers, and homeowners face, specifically related to the insufficient supply of quality affordable housing options, insufficient funds, and credit challenges.
The Community Builders is a mission-driven real estate developer and manager revitalizing communities with affordable rental apartments and for-sale homes across the Great Lakes, New England, New York/New Jersey, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions. Their Fannie Mae contract supports their From Our Doors to Yours project, which will deploy an economic empowerment package to build and repair credit through on-time rental payments. It will leverage affordable rentals in Chicago, Detroit, and Richmond. Onsite Community Life coaches will connect residents with relevant resources while building savings through earned income.
Southside Community Development & Housing Corporation (SCDHC) is a non-profit housing developer in the Richmond Metro Area. SCDHC creates viable, thriving, and sustainable communities across Central Virginia by providing residential and commercial development, homeownership and financial counseling and coaching, employment services, and supportive programs to low-income families. Their Fannie Mae contract advances their SCDHC Emporia Pathways Project, which includes the construction of affordable housing. The project is part of a 3-5-year construction pipeline that will include rental housing and homeownership opportunities as well as rental and prepurchase counseling, foreclosure prevention services, workforce development training and a range of financial capability services.
ReBUILD Metro is a Baltimore-based nonprofit that works with community members to revitalize homes and neighborhoods and help prepare Black residents for first-time homeownership. Their Fannie Mae contract supports the Johnston Square: A Blueprint for Baltimore project, which will stabilize, restore, and reoccupy scattered-site abandoned and dilapidated properties; begin the work to convert vacant lots into new units of affordable rental housing, street-level retail, and a 4-acre community park; expand their Path to Own program to help prepare Black first-time homebuyers to purchase redeveloped properties; and cultivate programs to help legacy residents make major home repairs.
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity brings people together to create, preserve, and promote affordable homeownership and advance racial equity in housing by connecting families with their communities through neighborhood revitalization projects. Their Fannie Mae contract will support Advancing Homeownership in the Twin Cities, a partnership with the Minnesota Homeownership Center to create and deploy a down payment assistance product that will help Black households to become homeowners. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity will engage three Community Development Financial Institutions to administer the program and up to 10 regional mortgage lenders to pair the product with their affordable mortgages.
Module, a prefab housing company based in Pittsburgh, started with the goal of making good home design more accessible and a mission to support customers’ health and wellbeing in well-designed, energy-efficient, highly functional homes that will last 100 years. In partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, Module will demonstrate the feasibility of locally owned modular construction micro-factories to complete energy-efficient affordable housing in urban communities of color. Their Fannie Mae contract will support their Last Mile Network project, setting the stage to expand their modular micro-factory concept to Prince George’s County, MD and Richmond, VA. Each facility will train new entrants in the construction trades, securing good-paying jobs while creating new affordable housing and enabling Black homeowners and renters to build wealth.
The Community Builders – From Our Doors to Yours (ODTY): Building housing opportunities for credit-invisible Black renters in Detroit, Chicago, and Richmond
The Community Builders is a mission-driven real estate development corporation transforming communities with affordable rental housing and property for purchase across the Northeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions. Their Fannie Mae contract supports their From Our Doors to Yours project, which will deploy an economic empowerment package to build and repair credit through on-time rental payments. It will leverage a pipeline of 1,560 affordable rentals to be built by 2027 in Chicago, Detroit, and Richmond. Onsite community life coaches will connect residents with relevant resources while providing Family Self Sufficiency Services to build savings through earned income.
Southside Community & Housing Corporation (SCDHC): Creating affordable opportunities for Black renters and homebuyers in Emporia, Virginia
Southside Community Development & Housing Corporation (SCDHC) is a non-profit housing developer in the Richmond Metro Area. SCDHC creates viable, thriving, and sustainable communities across Central Virginia by providing residential and commercial development, homeownership and financial counseling and coaching, employment services, and supportive programs to low-income families. Their Fannie Mae contract advances their SCDHC Emporia Pathways Project, which includes the construction of 70 units of affordable housing. The project is part of a 3-5-year construction pipeline that will include rental housing and homeownership opportunities as well as rental and prepurchase counseling, foreclosure prevention services, workforce development training and a range of financial capability services.
Rebuild Metro – Johnston Square Redevelopment Project: Revitalizing a historically Black neighborhood through rehabilitation and infill housing in Baltimore, Maryland
ReBUILD Metro is a Baltimore-based nonprofit that works with community members to revitalize homes and neighborhoods block by block and help prepare Black residents for first-time homeownership. Their Fannie Mae contract supports the Johnston Square: A Blueprint for Baltimore project, which will stabilize, restore, and reoccupy 25 scattered-site abandoned and dilapidated properties; convert 160 long-vacant lots into 113 new units of affordable rental housing, street-level retail, and a 4-acre community park; secure 550 vacant lots; and rehab 30-40 abandoned properties into mixed-use development and green space.
Twin Cities Habitat SPCP DPA Program: Increasing access to down-payment assistance through Special Purpose Credit Programs for Black homebuyers in Minnesota
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity brings people together to create, preserve, and promote affordable homeownership and advance racial equity in housing by connecting families with their communities through neighborhood revitalization projects. Their Fannie Mae contract will support Advancing Homeownership in the Twin Cities, a partnership with the Minnesota Homeownership Center to create and deploy a down payment assistance product that will help more than 200 Black households to become homeowners. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity will engage three Community Development Financial Institutions to administer the program and up to 10 regional mortgage lenders to pair the product with their affordable mortgages.
Module: Developing micro-factories for modular home finishings and training Black developers in Prince George’s County, Maryland and Richmond, Virginia
Module, a prefab housing company based in Pittsburgh, started with the goal of making good home design more accessible and a mission to support customers’ health and wellbeing in well-designed, energy-efficient, highly functional homes that will last 100 years. In partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, Module will demonstrate the feasibility of locally owned modular construction micro-factories to finish energy-efficient affordable housing in urban communities of color. Their Fannie Mae contract will support their Next Mile Network Project, setting the stage to expand their modular micro-factory concept to Prince George’s County, MD and Richmond, VA. Each facility will train new entrants in the construction trades, securing good-paying jobs while creating new affordable housing and enabling Black homeowners and renters to build wealth.
Advancing Racial Equity in Housing
Through the Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge 2022, a $5 million competition to promote racial equity in housing, Fannie Mae selected and awarded contracts to solvers who are implementing and scaling innovative ideas that contribute to a more equitable housing system in America. Explore the many innovative ideas submitted to The Innovation Challenge in our searchable database.
Learn about some our previous Innovation Challenge award recipients and the tremendous outcomes of their projects:
- Come Dream. Come Build.: An expanded counseling program facilitates sustainable homeownership in low-income communities
- Build UP: A high school program revitalizes communities and equips students for employment and homeownership
- HRDC: A trauma-informed tiny home community addresses chronic homelessness
- Children's National Health Systems: Telemedicine visits identify likely indoor triggers of childhood asthma