Enterprise Community Partners

Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit founded in 1982 that works on America's shortage of affordable rental homes. It describes itself as the only national nonprofit combining housing solutions, capital, and community development under one roof, and its stated aim is to make a good home possible for the millions of families without one. The organisation works across the United States, where 44 years of activity have been directed at the same shortage of affordable rental housing.

Its work runs on four tracks. Housing solutions and technical assistance support community development organisations on the ground to build capacity and deliver affordable housing. Housing capital and investment aggregates and invests billions of dollars to improve housing and strengthen communities. Housing policy advocacy advances housing policy at every level of government. Community building and management covers the direct construction and operation of communities. The technical domains behind these activities include affordable housing finance, community development, real estate development, property and community management, and racial equity in housing.

The organisation is mission-driven, treating housing as a foundation for dignity, health, education, wealth and community, and describes its approach as resident-centred, with work informed by the residents it serves. It commits to increasing housing supply, to advancing racial equity after decades of systematic racism in housing, and to supporting resilience and upward mobility for residents and communities. Its orientation is towards systems change: it states a commitment to changing a housing system that does not work.