Trust Neighborhoods

The Problem

Economic mobility in the U.S. is at a historic low — less than 50% of children today will out-earn their parents, compared to 90% in 1940. Studies show that where you grow up matters more than anything else in determining your pathway to economic mobility. Yet, while mixed-income neighborhoods have proven to be one of the single most significant drivers of economic mobility, a severely constrained housing supply in most growing cities today means low-income renters are being pushed out of high-opportunity neighborhoods by rising housing prices. Moreover, data shows these renters tend to move to neighborhoods with lower school quality and higher crime rates, often having to change jobs and lose income. As hundreds of neighborhoods are expected to gentrify over the next decade, new tools and solutions are needed to combat displacement and ensure that low-income residents can benefit from rising property values.

The Solution

Trust Neighborhoods developed the Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trust, a community-governed model designed to preserve affordability while ensuring community members themselves are able to reap the benefits from rising property values. A MINT is a perpetual purpose trust governed and managed by a local nonprofit, which sets a legally binding mission to preserve affordability. Trust Neighborhoods works closely with strong existing neighborhood organizations to establish and operate MINTs in communities at risk of displacement, including identifying right-fit neighborhoods, helping structure and launch the MINT, raising capital, and providing ongoing technical assistance. Each MINT uses equity and debt financing at the neighborhood level to acquire mixed-income rental properties in neighborhoods facing gentrification. A majority of affordable units are stabilized as affordable, while the rates on a minority of units are rented at market rate, generating sustainable income to cross-subsidize affordability, repay investors, and expand the portfolio over time.

Trust Neighborhoods has supported MINTs in Kansas City, Boston, Tulsa, Fresno, and Denver. These MINTs have acquired 243 units, preserving affordability for approximately 600 residents, and the organization is on track to scale to more than 2,000 units with new and existing MINTs by 2028. Trust Neighborhoods aims to scale to 15 cities within the next five years, and 100 cities within the next 15 years, focusing on gentrifying neighborhoods with a window of opportunity to prevent displacement. The potential impact of 100 established MINTs is to directly provide affordable housing, in perpetuity, for 50,000 MINT renters in neighborhoods that are growing in opportunity.

Impact

• Established MINTs in five cities across the U.S., driving $80 million in investment into blighted or mismanaged properties, and preserving affordability for over 200 housing units
• Enabled higher economic and social opportunity for more than 600 low-income residents most likely to be displaced by the housing affordability crisis, while strengthening the social fabric for entire neighborhoods and shifting power dynamics