Family Housing Fund 2022 Annual Report

Building Equity in Small Multifamily Ownership

"Purchasing this place has been a huge step forward for my family."

2022 marked the second full year of the Building Equity in Small Multifamily Ownership initiative, a collaborative set of strategies helping BIPOC households purchase homes and build wealth as owner-occupants of properties with 2 to 4 units. Family Housing Fund continued leading a collaborative of partners in efforts to 1) address the constrained supply and high competition for 2-4 unit properties, and 2) expand access to capital and training for homebuyers. By the end of 2022, 55 households had purchased a small multifamily property with support from the Building Equity Down Payment Assistance Loan program.

In 2022, our collaborative began offering two new post-purchase support programs under the Building Equity initiative to help sustain long-term homeowner success:

• A matched savings pilot program, in partnership with Prepare + Prosper, helps new homeowners build up their reserves after purchasing a 2-4 unit property.
• A post-purchase loan fund, administered by Center for Energy and Environment, offers zero-interest loans to help owner-occupants make necessary home repairs.

Together with our partners, we are focused on utilizing what we learn from this body of work to influence broader systems change.

"I want to make a nice and affordable unit in my community."

Addressing the Impacts of Corporate Investor Ownership

Housing in the Twin Cities is increasingly owned by corporate investors based outside of Minnesota, and research shows these investors disproportionately purchase distressed single-family homes in neighborhoods with high BIPOC populations. In 2022, FHFund began developing a new body of work to address the impacts of this shift in ownership, starting with a research project to learn about the renter experiences in these homes. We partnered with the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia (IX) to survey renters about the conditions of units, past maintenance, management responsiveness, voucher acceptance, and more. The study will identify any trends in habitability or management that pose risks to housing stability, health, or financial well-being, and compare the management practices of large corporate investors to smaller, locally based landlords. This will inform local policy recommendations as well as collaborative strategies to protect renters, support local ownership, and preserve the housing stock.

Designing Energy-Efficient Duplexes

To help reduce construction costs and encourage small multifamily development, FHFund created construction plans that local developers may use for free to build new, energy-efficient duplexes. Increasing the supply of the small multifamily housing stock will expand both rental opportunities and homeownership opportunities for households who aspire to build wealth as owner-occupant landlords, complementing the goals of our Building Equity initiative. By providing these architectural designs, we aim to improve the feasibility of environmentally sustainable, small multifamily development, especially for emerging BIPOC-led developers growing their businesses.

Housing Policy Inventory

FHFund created a new, online mapping tool to track local housing policies in the Twin Cities. This tool - our "Twin Cities Housing Policy Finder" - provides one place for policymakers, city staff, and housing advocates to find and compare housing policies across jurisdictions in our region. The Policy Finder is a resource to help our region understand where various housing policies have been implemented and inspire further exploration into the impact or replicability of particular policies.