Wells Fargo announced the winners of the 2023 Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge, a $20 million competition initiated by the Wells Fargo Foundation and Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise). Six organizations secured grants ranging from $2 million to $3 million each, along with support from peers and industry experts, to amplify their innovative housing solutions and enhance home accessibility and affordability nationwide.
The 2023 winners of the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge are set to engage in a multiyear peer learning network. This cohort will benefit from access to a network of housing sector leaders, including experts from Enterprise and previous competition winners. These collaborations contribute to the evolution and implementation of their breakthrough ideas, said Wells Fargo in a press release.
"There is incredible demand across all types of communities for affordable housing solutions that are tailored to local needs and have the potential to scale," said Jacqueline Waggoner, president of the Solutions Division at Enterprise Community Partners, according to Wells Fargo. "The Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge enables leaders on the ground to multiply their impact nationwide. We are so excited to work with this second cohort of winners to bring their ideas to the next level."
The initiatives introduced by the winners include Build UP's expansion of a unique workforce development high school in Birmingham, Alabama; Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority's Success Starts With Me Home Ownership Program in rural Alaska; Hydronic Shell Technologies' sustainable and healthy affordable housing initiative in Syracuse, New York; Module's Last Mile Network bringing prefabricated homes into urban communities; Hope Enterprise Corporation's innovative mortgage model in the Mississippi Delta; Grounded Solutions Network's Homes for the Future Fund which addresses affordability issues in communities of color starting in Atlanta - all as per a press release by Wells Fargo.