Advancing the Promise of Shared Equity Housing Models

Shared equity housing creates lasting affordability, builds wealth for people with limited incomes and helps create vibrant and inclusive communities. Shared equity programs typically realize these outcomes by limiting the sale or rental price of homes in their portfolios; requiring the sharing of home appreciation gains; and providing homeownership assistance to program residents. Residents and community members often participate in governing shared equity programs through democratic decision-making and/or a cooperative ownership structure.

NeighborWorks America received a total of $3 million in appropriations from Congress in 2019 and 2020 to support the promotion and development of shared equity housing models. This paper describes the outcomes of NeighborWorks' Shared Equity Housing Initiative (Shared Equity Initiative), which deployed these funds from 2019-2021, to support the growth of shared equity models within NeighborWorks' network and in the housing and community development industry more broadly. Through the initiative, NeighborWorks is able to:  

1. Provide funding for NeighborWorks network organizations to plan, launch or grow shared equity programs.  
2. Design and deliver new and updated training courses.  
3. Support the evaluation of shared equity models.  
4. Deploy specialized capacity-building tools and templates.