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How can we reimagine housing to advance equity?

Moving the Field Series  •  A Place Everyone Can Call Home

People who are able to own their homes build wealth over time. Children who live in safe, stable homes have a greater chance of educational success. Vibrant neighborhoods have less crime, healthier residents and opportunities for everyone to express themselves and pursue opportunity.

A mixed-income approach to housing is essential so that people at all stages of life have affordable options.

Housing that is designed to be attractive, durable, and responsive to resident needs supports community stability and helps integrate residents regardless of income, therefore encouraging interaction and gains in social capital.

Developing resources to enable upward mobility requires planning, coordination and creativity.

Safe, high-quality housing serving residents at all income levels is just one aspect of our coordinated holistic approach.

Click to learn more about our approach

Lessons Learned
Ensure The Availability Of Diverse, Affordable Options

A mixed-income approach to housing is essential so that people at all stages of life have affordable options.

Provide Quality Homes

Housing that is designed to be attractive, built with high quality materials, and constructed to respond to changing resident needs supports community stability. It also helps integrate residents regardless of income, therefore encouraging interaction and gains in social capital.

Deliberately Support Economic Mobility

Developing resources to enable upward mobility requires planning, coordination and creativity.

Home is where the heart is.

There is privilege in that platitude. We can realize a future when everyone lives in housing that helps them thrive. But to get there, we must reconcile the ugly legacy of segregationist policies, practices and social norms that have intentionally excluded access to stable housing and home ownership for too many people.

It’s not a difficult equation. People who are able to own their homes build wealth over time. Children who live in safe, stable homes have a greater chance of educational success. Vibrant neighborhoods have less crime, healthier residents and opportunities for everyone to express themselves and pursue opportunity.

At Purpose Built Communities, we believe everyone deserves a safe, supportive and stable place to call home. Our national network of neighborhood partners has shown that the availability of high-quality mixed-income housing for all stages of life with deep channels of permanent affordability is core to making a neighborhood a place where people want to stay and move into. A place worthy of hope, pride and love.

High-quality, mixed-income housing is a key element of our model to advance long-term neighborhood revitalization.
Watch this video for an overview of the Purpose Built approach.Watch Video

At Purpose Built Communities, we believe everyone deserves a safe, supportive and stable place to call home.

Lesson Learned:
Ensure The Availability Of Diverse, Affordable Options

A mixed-income approach to housing is essential so that people at all stages of life have affordable options.

Distressed neighborhoods have very high transiency rates, 2-3 times than that of healthy neighborhoods, which means that the entire neighborhood is “self-displacing” every three or four years on average. Half of low-income transiency is due to people “fleeing” these last-resort neighborhoods.

Our Network demonstrates that mixed-income housing enables residents to remain in their neighborhood as they transition from different stages of life and move up the economic ladder.

Mixed-income housing usually takes the form of multi-family rental units such as apartments and townhomes. Offering units that are indistinguishable from one another – not identifiable by income tier – is essential. And attention to the life cycle of people is also key. When people can find rental units while they establish financial stability, starter homes for purchase to build wealth, and options for seniors to downsize or access supportive care, lives can be lived fully in a place. Entrepreneurship can be fostered. Children can get to know people of different ages and backgrounds, broadening their horizons. Neighbors feel safe walking and recreating in their community, improving individual health.

Spotlight on New Orleans:
Network Member Bayou District Foundation

Of the almost 700 households in the Columbia Parc mixed-income community, nearly 500 receive public housing or reduced rental rates. An apartment complex for seniors and small cottages provide housing to meet the needs of residents aged 62 or older. This approach is helping this historic community recover from decades of disinvestment and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

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Lesson Learned:
Deliberately Support Economic Mobility

Developing resources to enable upward mobility requires planning, coordination and creativity.

Home ownership is one of the most common ways people build wealth. However, home ownership rates among Black families are in steep decline, worsening the wealth gap. Thus, a key part of eradicating intergenerational poverty hinges on ensuring that neighborhoods have appreciating property values given that research shows residential equity is the largest component of household wealth.

A coordinated plan across local housing authorities, funding agencies, nonprofit partners and developers to collaboratively manage affordability is key to creating an economically diverse neighborhood that supports wealth-building. If neighborhood housing options are integrated across income levels then everyone has access to the market power they deserve.

An effective approach to housing includes support for and options to help people become homeowners, such as clinics to help people understand financing options and local programs developed to help with down payments.

Spotlight on Grand Rapids:
Network Member Amplify GR

Residents developed the Neighborhood Strong program, which provides funding for home repairs. The program helps keep legacy residents in their homes, which increases home values and in turn supports stability for families and the entire neighborhood. It also ensures residents live in safe, healthy homes that help them build value and wealth.

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How Neighborhoods Became Segregated

In his book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America, author and expert Richard Rothstein demonstrates that residential segregation was created by racially explicit and unconstitutional government policy in the mid-twentieth century.

Hear about his research in this session from the 2019 Purpose Built conference.

From the Network

A Conversation with Jacob Peters, Director of Operations, Bayou District Foundation

SEASON 3, EPISODE 3
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Hear how thoughtful, historic investments in children, affordable housing and all aspects of the social determinants of health are setting up the Bayou District of New Orleans for meaningful recovery. Listen

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Purpose Built Communities

We are excited to reveal our new brand identity! Our new brand is the next chapter in a story about increasing economic mobility, better health outcomes, and racial equity by harnessing neighborhoods as powerful engines of change.

In our new logo, you see the blocks of a city grid or an interwoven tapestry of bold and vivid colors. It symbolizes both where we work and how we work. Purpose Built supports over 70 neighborhoods—including more than 25 Network Members—creating an interconnected collective of leaders strengthening neighborhoods so everyone can thrive.

This new brand identity is more than a logo. It is a framework for telling the Purpose Built Communities story and an invitation to join our mission of creating pathways to prosperity for residents in the places they call home.