Grant Spotlight: Urban Homestead Housing Assistance

With funding from the CDF Cooperative Education Fund, Urban Homestead Housing Assistance (UHAB), a New York affordable nonprofit housing organization, is sharing its  limited equity housing cooperatives (LEC) expertise with other communities seeking solutions to the affordable housing crisis. 

UHAB utilizes cooperative ownership as a model for democratic participation, and a tool for permanent affordability.  During its 45 years of operation, UHAB used the LEC model to help create and preserve over 30,000 affordable co-op units across the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. LECs maintain housing affordability by limiting the profit residents can earn when selling their cooperative shares, keeping purchase prices low for current and new owner-residents and protecting building eligibility for a variety of subsidies. 

UHAB used CDF funding to create the Sixth Principle Coalition (6PC), a group of practitioners  committed to serving and growing the limited-equity housing cooperative sector. Embodying the spirit of the 6th Principle of Cooperation, “Cooperation among Cooperatives,” the Coalition’s membership unites the national limited-equity co-op community of over 165,000 units of housing, 40 organizations and more than 100 practitioners who serve those co-ops across the USA.

UHAB also used the CDF grant to create an online platform mapping the nation's LEC  housing stock, supporting organizations and vendors.  The data collection was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. UHAB and its partners have provided information on the LEC model to state and local governments across the country including Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Chicago. 

“The enthusiasm around co-ops as a community-driven solution to the affordability crisis is the mission of 6PC” says Andrew Reicher, Executive Director, UHAB. “We hope to harness this moment to restore the cooperative model to the mainstream of housing solutions.”

About the Cooperative Education Fund

The Cooperative Education Fund supports cooperative research, sponsors cooperative education events and scholarships, and develops cooperative education materials and programs. The Fund provides $90,000-$100,000 in grants, scholarships, and sponsorships annually. Applications for the 2019 fall grant cycle must be submitted by October 1, 2019 by visiting cdf.coop/cooperative-education.