Ending 2024 with gratitude, celebrations, and hiring
We are ending 2024 with gratitude for all we’ve been able to take on this year, and it wouldn’t be possible with the amazing communities we work with and supporters like you. Our team has grown to eight, and we’re lucky to work with hundreds of residents, partners, contractors, funders, and so many others who have become a part of the now five Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts.
Growing in Colorado
In our last newsletter, we shared news of the launch of the East Colfax Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trust, or EC MINT, in Denver and Aurora. Trust Neighborhoods was back in the neighborhood at the end of October to co-host a funder meeting bringing together more than 20 existing and potential funders to discuss what’s possible to grow EC MINT over the next year.
EC MINT is now already working on new possible acquisitions, and the Denver Post just wrote on the story of the new MINT and its aspirations for the future:
“We want people to be living in healthy, dignified housing conditions,” said Htoo Paw, a member of the oversight board, which is formally called the Trust Stewardship Committee. “And also, we want people to know that they can stay in a place as long as they want.”
New donations
Since our last newsletter, we’ve also been fortunate to receive support from Jesse Pollak in California and the Barry and Mimi Sternlicht Foundation in Connecticut.
We are also thrilled to announce that the Marguerite Casey Foundation has made the largest donation to date with a generous two-year funding commitment to Trust Neighborhoods as part of its commitment to economic representation and a more just economy that prioritizes the needs of underrepresented and excluded communities.
We also learned just this week that the Melville Charitable Trust has awarded Trust Neighborhoods a two-year commitment for our work as part of its dedication to addressing the inequitable systems that drive people into homelessness and housing instability.
We are excited to have such thoughtful partners in this work at a key moment in our growth as an institution.
Through the support of Wells Fargo, we have also begun evaluating a potential MINT in Chicago’s Garfield Park, in partnership with Garfield Park Community Council and the Rite to Wellness Collaborative. The team will be there in January to spend time in the neighborhood and with community members and partners. Please let us know if you’re interested in learning more!
Please also consider supporting Trust Neighborhoods with your own end-of-year giving. You can donate here to support our work.
Sharing with Peers
The last few months have provided opportunities to be in community with peers from across the country. Our Senior Project Manager Cali Slepin presented at the Opportunity Finance Network, and our Co-Founder Kavya Shankar participated in a daylong Flourishing Neighborhoods meeting born out of a collaboration including Tracy Loh at Brookings and Seth Kaplan at Johns Hopkins focused on the importance of building neighborhood-level social infrastructure.
We speak of the economic, social, and health opportunity we hope MINTs help deliver by protecting affordability for residents; this convening and body of research also highlights the importance of preventing the social destruction that so often happens with displacement and dislocation, and of investing in local institutions.
Kavya and the Flourishing Neighborhoods gathering
We’ve also been receiving more kind invitations to present on Trust Neighborhoods and be part of more gatherings with peers and others. Given we’re a small nonprofit team, we’re working out our approach on what to prioritize. We’d love to hear from you if you have advice or a clear framework on how you or your team prioritize conferences and presentations.
Enterprise Community Partners, Ivory Innovations, and the Housing Lab also featured Trust Neighborhoods and the Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts in their new white paper on Innovation in Housing.
MINT support & celebration
The Health Forward Foundation in Kansas City has awarded the Northeast Neighborhood Trust a generous $400,000 grant to continue to invest in its team and new properties. Just last month, the Northeast Neighborhood Trust was also honored with Historic Kansas City’s Neighborhood Stabilization Award for having “greatly contributed to the revitalization of a historic neighborhood or reclamation of abandoned or poorly maintained property or structure.”
Terrell Jolly and NENT accept the Neighborhood Stabilization Award
The East Boston Neighborhood Trust, or EBNT, was also honored as part of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s marking of 1,000 units of affordable housing preserved with the support of the city’s Acquisition Opportunity Program, with EBNT representing more than one in ten of those homes!
Boston Mayor Wu celebrates EBNT and the Acquisition Opportunity Program
Community Ownership for Community Power Fund (“COCP Fund”), a coalition of funders focused on housing justice and community ownership in California, made capacity building grants to organizations dedicated to expanding community ownership of land and housing. Lowell CDC, General Manager of the Central Fresno Neighborhood Trust, received a grant to expand their capacity in service of growing their housing portfolio.
With its expanded capacity, CFNT is pursuing a major acquisition of a 39-unit apartment building in the heart of their priority focus area. Please reach out if you’d be interested in helping support financing this project.
We’re hiring!
We are opening a second Senior Project Manager position to help us expand the Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trust (MINT) model to more neighborhoods across the country. See here for the JD and get your resume and paragraph of interest in by January 8th!
And with that: wishing you happy holidays from the Trust Neighborhoods team! See you in 2025!
Recent news & media
Building Better Cities Podcast // December 10, 2024 // Neighborhood Trusts and how they prevent community displacement with David Kemper // Apple // Spotify
Denver Post // December 2nd, 2024 // With an eye toward keeping rent low, Denver nonprofit buys its first apartment building — with plans for more // link
Historic Kansas City // November 12, 2024 // 2024 Preservation Awards – 50th Anniversary Night // link
Growing Together // November 8, 2024 // Introducing At Home Design’s partnership with the Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Trust // instagram
Enterprise // October 24th, 2024 // The Case for Innovation in Housing: How Local Governments Can Drive Solutions // link and PDF
Front Porch // September 24th, 2024 // A Community Ownership Model on East Colfax // link