44% of households in Fairhill & St Hugh are homeowners. We know from neighborhood surveying that many renters want to put down permanent roots to remain close to family, friends, and the area’s Latino arts and culture – but many cited a lack of credit or financial resources as barriers. Families in this neighborhood experience high rates of poverty and spend a disproportionately high percentage of income on housing. HACE has developed hundreds of units of affordable rental housing, but to make a lasting change we know we need creative strategies to address homeownership and community wealth building.

This led us to ask: “How might we build community wealth, decrease blight, and stabilize the local market — while also preventing displacement, ensuring long-term affordability, and putting residents in the driver’s seat?”

We believe that answering this question will set an important precedent in Philadelphia that can be replicated in similar neighborhoods.

HACE offers a comprehensive and robust menu of housing counseling and homeownership programs for neighbors, including foreclosure prevention, energy assistance, budgeting, one-on-one counseling, down-payment assistance, home repairs, weatherization, and more. Since 1992, certified counselors have provided services in both English and Spanish to over 18,000 households. HACE has expanded this work over the past two years, piloting its “Credit Academy” – an intensive credit improvement and financial skill-building program to prepare more residents to become homeowners.

HACE has also demonstrated expertise in developing affordable housing with both rental and homeownership projects, including the Lawrence Court homeownership project that included 50 new homes with design aesthetics reflecting the Latino heritage of the community. The project included subsidized pricing for low-income buyers, as well as down-payment assistance.

We know the market can shift quickly. HACE is acting to decisively and proactively increase our homeownership strategies and position residents to benefit — and to create and preserve affordability. Property ownership and community wealth building go hand in hand.

A Key to Community Grant will help HACE ramp up our homeownership activities and establish the “Good Lands Trust” – a Community Land Trust (CLT) that retains land ownership while selling the home to low-income buyers at an affordable price. Families build equity with some restrictions at re-sale to preserve long-term affordability.

With over 250 active CLTs nationwide, 82% of homebuyers in this model have incomes below 50% of the area average, and homes are ten times less likely to be foreclosed. With 23 properties currently in the pipeline, and plans for 30-50 more in the next three years, HACE is poised to model the value of this approach in the Good Lands.