Wells Fargo and Enterprise Announce Winners of $20 Million Housing Innovation Challenge
Summary
And the winning group of entrepreneurs and social innovators truly combine expertise with the lived experiences of the communities we aim to serve.The 2023 winners and their breakthrough ideas are: Build UP: Build Up Birmingham and Beyond aims to expand the unique workforce development high school in Birmingham, Alabama that combines academic learning with hands-on, paid internships in home construction and real estate. As part of the Breakthrough Challenge, Build UP plans to enroll more than 120 students, renovate and relocate more than 40 homes, and facilitate 200 paid construction internships. Partners including Haa Yakaawu Financial Corporation will offer construction and home loans with individualized down payments, payback schedules, and education courses with the goal of supporting more than 100 families in the Juneau region. The high-efficiency system, which is the first of its kind in the United States, aims to reduce CO2 emissions while improving indoor air quality, lowering energy bills and enabling residents to remain in place throughout the process. The cohort will gain access to a network of leaders from across the housing sector, including experts from Enterprise and past winners of the competition.Named in 2020, the first cohort of winners have launched and begun scaling an array of innovations that include a modular building system that can grow over time, a shared-housing and services program for people returning to communities after incarceration, and an underwriting tool designed to close the racial homeownership gap.The Breakthrough Challenge allowed us to build a bigger table, where residents and frontline staff had real power and leadership over decisions in their communities, said Julianna Stuart-Lomax, vice president of community impact for 2020 winner Preservation of Affordable Housing.