Mission-Driven Development
About
Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are not-for-profit organizations based in a specific neighborhood or community — typically, low-income neighborhoods that have suffered from economic disinvestment – whose mission is to build and improve their neighborhoods. Because of this, they have long played a key role in city housing plans. Recently, though, there has been an overreliance on for-profit developers in city housing plans, creating a missed opportunity to reduce inequality and serve the needs of the lowest income New Yorkers.
Why This Matters
Mission-driven, non-profit developers leverage city public financing tools for their housing, industrial, and commercial work, and create the greatest public good for our communities. CDCs have a uniquely strong approach to development, and support local residents with community benefits, including deeper affordability, long-term affordability, support for essential community services, and authentic community control.
What We're Doing
ANHD is providing robust advocacy, technical assistance, hands-on training, and in-depth community based research to support the increased use of non-profit, mission-driven developers, ensuring that affordable development has the greatest impact for the community.
The CDC Advocacy Committee is a cohort of ANHD’s mission-driven non-profit developer members who are fighting to have the greatest impact in their local communities through housing development and job creation and social services. The CDC Advocacy Committee works to support ANHD’s housing developer members with training and capacity building, and to win more policy support from the City for CDCs and the values they bring to affordable housing development.
As New York City public land becomes limited, mission-driven non-profit developers must explore ways to purchase private land and partner with non-CDC groups to develop and maintain permanently affordable housing. To this end, ANHD has also partnered with groups including the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s office, Goldstein Hall, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Supportive Housing Network of New York (SHNNY) to perform outreach to faith based institutions, and educate them about the development opportunities they can take to create affordable housing and preserve community assets.
Check out the associated projects below for more information on how we are fighting for mission-driven development.
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