Nehemiah: Making the American Dream possible for first-time homeowners

From CBS News: The Nehemiah project began in the 1980s building privately-owned homes on land that nobody wanted in East Brooklyn and sold the homes at prices that were affordable to working class families. Church and community organizers mobilized local politicians to sell the land for almost nothing and provide subsidies for community members and raise money that could be used for loans. The program has built 6,500 homes and created an estimated $1.5 billion of wealth for first time Black and Latino homeowners.

Click here to read the original story.

Issue Areas:

Housing, Land Use, Sustainable Development

Impact Areas:

Distributed Trust and Power, Equity

Actors:

BIPOC Communities, Lending, Banking, and Financial Institutions

Communities Served:

BIPOC Communities, Communities Experiencing Economic Hardship

Strategies:

Collective Action, Easing Economic Burdens for Individuals, Redefining Land / Land Ownership

Success Factors:

Building Distribution Systems, Eliminating Barriers, Embracing the Power of Relationships, Leveling the Playing Field, Meeting People Where They Are At, Overcoming the Big Challenges

Geographic Region:

North America

Countries:

United Kingdom

Date:

September 11, 2022

More Resources:

Conversation with Philip Rosedale

Philip Rosedale is a co-founder and advisor of High Fidelity, a company devoted to exploring the future of next-generation shared virtual reality. Prior to High Fidelity, Rosedale created the virtual civilization Second Life and has also worked on experiments in...

Conversation with Tara Campbell

Tara Campbell (she/her) is a designer specializing in change-enabling collaborative processes. In her role at the David Suzuki Foundation, she is working alongside a national network of organizations, alliances, and individuals to accelerate the transition to economies that prioritize wellbeing...

Conversation with Deepa Iyer

Deepa Iyer is the co-founder of Ayeko Farms, an initiative focused on sustainable agriculture and building community resilience through farming practices. She works to promote environmental sustainability and social equity by fostering deeper connections between communities and the land. Deepa...

Conversation with Anita Chandra

Anita Chandra (she/her) is vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being and a senior policy researcher at RAND. The division that she leads covers a range of topics at the intersection of social and economic policy and...

How the Philippines tapped on open-source to implement digital identity and improve services

From Yen Ocampo & Yong Shu Chiang / GovInsider: A national identification system called PhilSys has been rolled out in the Philippines in order to create access to social benefits and digital services. Future services may include but are not...

Conversation with Mette Beckhof

Mette Beckhof co-leads the local chapter of The Economy for the Common Good in Cologne/Bonn, Germany, which advocates an alternative economic model – one that is beneficial to all stakeholders in an organization. Mette Beckhof spoke with Ashley Hopkinson on...