Wells Fargo [1] and Enterprise Community Partners announced the application process for the Housing Breakthrough Challenge—a nationwide search for the innovative, scalable, and viable ideas to increase housing affordability solutions.
The competition will award six grants of more than $2 million each and two years of technical assistance from Enterprise.
“Transformative change in communities happens when the best ideas are paired with the right mix of resources and technical know-how, and the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge allows us to do that six times over,” said Enterprise SVP of National Initiatives Melinda Pollack. “This incredible commitment from Wells Fargo will elevate and scale promising new ideas that will create real change for the millions of families who lack access to quality affordable homes nationwide.”
Winning proposals will detail scalable solutions that address one of the three focus areas:
- Housing construction
- Housing financing
- Resident services and support
The deadline for first-round requests for proposals are due February 19. Enterprise will conduct a review process to select up to 40 finalists for the second round for requests for proposals. Fifteen finalists will be invited to the third and final round, including participating in a pitch competition. The six grant recipients will be named during the summer.
The Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge is part of Wells Fargo’s $1 billion commitment to support housing affordability solutions across the U.S. by 2025.
"Together with Enterprise Community Partners, we will engage with creative innovators who have know-how, technical skill, imagination — and with catalytic investment — can transform housing affordability ideas into real action on the ground,” said Eileen Fitzgerald, head of housing affordability philanthropy with the Wells Fargo Foundation. “With the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge, we are bringing forward our financial resources combined with our business expertise to inspire vitally needed scalable and effective housing affordability solutions.
The challenge is open to applicants in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin islands. Proposals may cover both single and multi-family housing, and can assist homeowners or renters.
Follow the link [2] for more information on the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge website.