Jeanne Cola, Senior Executive Director, LISC Rhode Island

In a sharp editorial for the Boston Globe, LISC Rhode Island senior executive director Jeanne Cola celebrates a $120M housing bond that will go before voters this fall, but warns that the figure is not nearly enough to close the state’s enormous affordability gap. Citing a range of creative solutions, Cola argues that only an all-hands-on-deck approach, with corporate citizens, non-profits and all levels of government collaborating, can make good housing for all a reality.

State Farm has committed a new $2 million, one-year grant to support affordable housing, small business, income and wealth building, and healthy food access. With the new grant, State Farm’s support for LISC now totals $155 million since 2000! We celebrate this renewed commitment by reflecting on our impact together over more than two decades.

A $2.1 million predevelopment loan from LISC helped Gragg Cardona Partners build The Residences at Kenilworth Park, an affordable housing complex adjacent to a wetlands preserve in Northeast D.C. offering supportive services for Medicaid-eligible and other qualified elderly residents 60 and older. The development meets high-quality accessibility standards and provides on-site certified nurses and aides, access to nature, community and nutritious food, among many other keys to well-being.

In this economy, it takes creativity, collaboration, and patience to make affordable homeownership a reality. Those are precisely the qualities driving Core City, a LISC Toledo program that acquires, renovates, and sells vacant and blighted properties for homeownership. Learn how we’ve teamed up with Owens Corning to bring homeownership within reach for more Toledo residents.

Natavia lives in the 800 square-foot family house her grandmother bought on the east side of Jacksonville, Florida almost 80 years ago. Natavia is the third generation to call the property home. “I value the house for the memories,” she said. “I grew up spending the summers with my grandma, hearing the stories of her walking to work way on the other side of town, just to have a home.”

Manufactured housing, which 20 million Americans call home, is one of the few affordable housing options in the United States. The residents of two Washington State mobile home communities recently succeeded in purchasing their parks with help from ROC USA and over $2 million in financing from Rural LISC. As a result, they have been able to stabilize their housing costs, upgrade their communities and remain in the places they love.