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Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing

Friendship Court -- used with permission by NHT/Enterprise Preservation Corp.The Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing resource bank was created by CFED with grant support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to gather, showcase and share critical information, organizational contacts and other resources to help preserve and improve the nation’s diminishing stock of low-cost rental homes. In August 2008, the resource bank was transferred to HousingPolicy.org.

This page provides background information on the Window of Opportunity initiative and links to related resources that can be found throughout our section on preserving affordable rental homes.

Across the country today, successful preservation projects are on the rise and model policies are taking shape at local, state and federal levels. Preservation owners are acquiring, refinancing, renovating and preserving the existing stock of affordable rental homes and states, cities and regions are paying greater attention to the need to preserve and improve the existing stock of affordable rental housing.

To accelerate this activity, the MacArthur Foundation provides direct support through its $150-million initiative, Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing. Click here [PDF] to see a list of grantees, which include nine specialized preservation lenders and 23 mission-driven nonprofit organizations. The list also includes leading national preservation policy experts, affordable housing researchers, and organizations that are working on targeted preservation initiatives in Cook County, Illinois and New York City.

The MacArthur Foundation projects that, by the end of 2007, nearly 50,000 affordable rental homes will have been preserved and improved by organizations supported through its Window of Opportunity initiative – at an average cost of $81,000 per unit. This is about half the cost of building a new rental apartment in the U.S. today.

In November 2007 the MacArthur Foundation announced $35 million in new funding to support states and cities seeking to roll out or ramp up model preservation policies and initiatives. For information about the new Awards for State and Local Housing Preservation Leaders, please view the List of Finalists [PDF].

Click here to view media resources and recent articles on the preservation of affordable rental homes.

Click here to view the Window of Opportunity Gallery, which showcases successful preservation projects.

Articles and reports from the Window of Opportunity Information Bank have been added to the Key Resources page in the HousingPolicy.org section on preserving affordable rental homes. Please visit this page to browse the collection of reports on housing preservation policies, best practices and research on the at-risk stock of affordable rental housing.