Building on over 14 years of success in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Coming Home program, NCB Capital Impact created the Center for Long-term Supports Innovations. The new center’s mission is to help older Americans and persons with disabilities to conduct their lives with maximum independence, dignity, and connection with their communities.
In its first months, the center released a suite of products, developed as part of the Coming Home program, that support the development of affordable assisted living. The series includes research benchmarks, best practices and proven implementation tools. The materials are all free to developers, providers and other partners who share this mission.
The center also began work in a variety of areas, including housing for Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects, and has established relationships with organizations such the AARP Public Policy Institute and the California HealthCare Foundation.
- Eight sites opened 14 Green House® homes in six states, for a total of 13 operating sites. Over 20 additional Green House®projects are currently in development in 14 states – five of these sites are expected to open in 2008.
- THE GREEN HOUSE® Replication Initiative, creating a new and innovative approach to long-term, skilled nursing care, accelerated in national recognition and expansion with 500 participants representing 240 organizations attending 14 GREEN HOUSE® workshops.
- THE GREEN HOUSE® model was identified by the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care as a notable example of a transformative model in long-term care. The report cites critical programmatic innovations including the small houses and accessible living spaces that elders recognize as home.
- THE GREEN HOUSE® launched a new Members Only online collaboration forum for adopters to provide networking opportunities with their colleagues nationwide. Projects in operation or development can participate in online discussions, exchange information, share experiences and best practices, as well as post and download tools, documents, and photos.
- THE GREEN HOUSE® was featured in numerous print and broadcast media including the New York Times, ABC News and PBS, as well as several local media outlets.
In March, NCB Capital Impact organized the First DC Co-op Clinic:
- An eight-week program engaging key professionals in an overall evaluation of each participating co-op including: building condition, financial, legal and loan health; including
- A full-day clinic brought together over 200 people representing 28 co-ops totalling 1,200 units to receive their evaluations and participate in workshops on marketing units, capital improvements, legal issues and board/member training; and
- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and City Council Chairman Vince Gray both addressed the enthusiastic crowd.
Lasting Impact: At the Clinic, a board leadership workshop began the discussion of next step strategies, including future meetings to begin collaborating as a unified affordable co-op sector. Since then, NCB Capital Impact has facilitated a regular series of leadership meetings. This next phase is called the DC Co-op Forum with over 20 co-ops actively participating. This resident-directed initiative will receive on-going training and technical assistance provided by NCB Capital Impact.
In December, NeighborWorks® America and NCB Capital Impact co-sponsored a sold-out symposium for over 250 community development professionals, local officials, lenders, developers and builders.
The symposium advanced national collaboration and explored how shared equity ownership uses the investment of public resources to achieve both wealth creation AND to create affordability that will extend to future buyers and renters, through tools such as: inclusionary housing, land trusts, deed restrictions, co-ops, shared equity mortgages.
Among the participants were many of the leading affordable housing development and finance organizations in the U.S., including key note speaker, Henry Cisneros and: NeighborWorks America, NCB Capital Impact, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Washington Mutual, CityView, American Sunrise Communities, National Association of Home Builders, Forest City Stapleton, National Housing Conference, Center for Housing Policy, Burlington Associates in Community Development, the cities of Chicago, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle.
In 2007, NCB Capital Impact, in partnership with Ford Foundation carried out two major efforts to promote and preserve affordable housing:
1) Conducted the study, Measuring the Market for Shared Equity Ownership Housing. Key findings were:
- 14.8% of consumers in the 20 largest U.S. cities are strongly interested in using Shared Equity to become homeowners;
- Consumer interest increased significantly once Shared Equity Ownership was more fully explained; and
- Over the next five years, demand for permanently affordable Shared Equity Ownership housing in the 20 largest cities alone could total approximately 297,455 units.
2) Convened the Shared Equity Symposium at the December NeighborWorks® America National Training Institute (see above). The Symposium reached five conclusions about moving Shared Equity to scale.