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  • San Francisco's Filipino Cultural District Keeping Hope Alive After a Tough Year

    “UNDSCVRD SF," funded by the SOMA Community Stabilization Fund and produced by the nonprofit Kultivate Labs, is a night market held once a month from July to November that features a range of Filipino vendors. There were over 35,000 attendees in 2019 and it generated $300,000 in sales. It also serves as a testing ground to select businesses for Kultivate Labs’ SEED Accelerator Program and grantees for the SOMA Fund. The former provides bootcamps and one-on-one support for Filipino-owned businesses that are located in, or would like to be located in, a permanent space within the SOMA cultural district.

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  • This Real Estate Co-Op is Looking for Investors Who Want to Put Community First

    The 2012 federal JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) took some time to gain traction, but in recent years it has democratized the financing of worker-owned co-ops and other community-based entities that ordinarily would be frozen out of capital markets. By making possible what is called a direct public offering, the law has made it easier to finance businesses that promise greater social benefits than just profit maximization, by opening investment opportunities to a more diverse and egalitarian mix of investors.

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  • A collaboration of local orgs is working to boost minority-owned businesses in Kensington

    Four local organizations have teamed up to provide $15 million in loans for the Latinx community in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. The affordable loans have gone to affordable housing, small businesses, residential mortgages, and development projects.

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  • Susu as a Vehicle to Advance Economic Mobility

    A traditional African method of mutual aid, Susu, is helping members of the African Diaspora access capital for businesses, education, housing, and more. The informal loan network enables people to contribute periodically to a group fund with each contributor taking turns receiving the collected money. The informal loan club is a centuries-old African tradition that serves as a security net and can also provide economic mobility.

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  • Fighting Gentrification

    When gentrification made housing unaffordable for many people in Houston's historically Black Third Ward neighborhood, local activists sought remedies beyond standard federal tax incentives for affordable housing. A city-sponsored Community Land Trust developed a plan for more affordable housing. At the same time, a development catering to low-income, older LGBTQ residents, adjacent to the Third Ward, got developed on donated land. Charlotte has many similar challenges, making Houston a model for what is possible.

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  • Seattle Bets on Equitable Development

    An Equitable Development Initiative was launched as a result of a racial equity analysis that gauged the effect that Seattle’s economic growth would have on communities of color. Funding for the initiative has gone toward capital for these communities to purchase real estate and develop projects that build up affordable housing, child care, food security, and other issues that would best serve longtime residents and prevent gentrification.

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  • Seattle's Newest Community Hub Was Built, Literally, By Neighbors

    A collective of artists in Seattle bought real estate for a community center with the help of city funding. Known as Black and Tan Hall, the space drew funding and sweat equity from community members who sought a safe and affordable place to gather. The initiative to buy the building is “an anti-gentrification model that combats displacement, keeps dollars hyper local, and sustains good jobs.”

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  • Worker-Owned Cooperatives are Building Their Own Investment Network

    Cooperatives are getting the funding they need through a “nationwide network of loans funds and incubators that specialize in supporting and investing in cooperative businesses.” Coops lack access to traditional funding and are typically member funded. The new source of funding has allowed historically marginalized Black and Hispanic communities the opportunity to create coops where workers share ownership equally.

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  • Charlotte may have cracked the code on affordable housing. Here's how

    A real estate investor has led the charge in creating a Housing Impact Fund in Charlotte, NC, to preserve affordable housing. The housing it seeks to preserve is not considered public housing but it does serve those who make less than the area’s median income. This type of housing is known as Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) and can be profitable over a longer period of time while simultaneously providing a service for the rapidly growing city.

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  • The Sausage-Making to Revive a Black-owned Sausage Factory in New Orleans

    Community land trusts typically provide affordable housing but now one is responsible for the revival of a family business in New Orleans. Commercial community land trusts are emerging as viable solutions for tenants being displaced by higher rents as well as the revitalization of historically Black centers of commerce. Commercial land trusts are an avenue for the Black community to have “economic self-determination.”

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