Dear Network Friends, 

As I reflect on your many successful efforts throughout 2025, I am reminded that progress doesn't happen by accident; it happens because each of you shows up, speaks up, and takes meaningful action. As we all know quite well, the challenge of affordability is neither a hoax nor a recently introduced concept. Throughout the year, I’ve connected with communities and leaders across the country who are all working hard each day to address the undeniable legacy of multi-generational affordability crises.

In Seattle, WA, I was invited by our network member African Community Housing and Development to witness their power as a culturally rooted organization expanding access to opportunities and helping immigrant families achieve the American Dream. The stories they shared—of families building wealth, stability, and pride—reinforced why our work matters. 

In Newark, NJ, for the Prudential Foundation national gathering of fellow grantee leaders, we discussed ways to increase access to affordable housing as both a foundation and catalyst for prosperity, making the ownership economy a reality, and securing upward mobility for generations to come. 

In Atlanta, GA, during Independent Sector’s CEO Circle event, we confronted both how far we’ve come as a nation, and yet how much further we have yet to travel along the Arc of Justice in realizing the intended outcomes of the Civil Rights movement. 

In Austin, TX, my visit to an exciting nearly complete 700-acre planned community validated that realizing new shared equity home development, with public/private partnerships that prioritize lasting affordability at a large scale, is possible. Speaking with our members at the Mueller Foundation, City of Austin, and the national for-profit developer Catellus proves that we can and should seize all opportunities to both imagine and build new family-oriented, mixed-use, mixed-income residential communities that provide people with a variety of important amenities. 

As we contemplate the new year ahead, it is obvious that even greater obstacles and challenges are on the horizon for all of us attempting to meet the needs of communities and families we care about. Even as communities are advancing bold new ownership models, vital federal resources are being withheld, and critical federal policy changes are being delayed or blocked needlessly. Case in point, the House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill recently announced House Republicans will prevent the inclusion of the ROAD to Housing Act—which includes significant positive changes designed to benefit shared equity models—in the National Defense Authorization Act. In response, we must redouble our efforts in 2026 to advance Congressional approval of these and other key federal policy provisions that would significantly bolster our shared equity efforts. 

2026 will also mark the launch of our first regional hub pilot serving Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. The hub model’s structure and activities have been shaped by local stakeholder feedback and are designed to better focus our services and strategies to accelerate shared equity home production across a mix of both existing and newly formed network member organizations, strategic partners, and policy makers. 

Thank you for continuing to stand with us and for believing in lasting affordability as essential infrastructure for a just society. Our 2026 Membership Drive is underway, so if you are interested in becoming a new member or renewing, please click here. Together, we can forge a path forward to scale shared equity models that result in stronger communities where everyone can thrive.  

With appreciation and determination, 

NCRC and SouthState Bank's $8.3 Billion Plan Will Help Tackle Housing Affordability

Earlier this year the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) announced an $8.3 billion community benefits agreement that will help support underserved communities across eight states. The agreement includes significant loans for community development, home purchases, home refinancing, and/or home improvements. In addition to NCRC, three Grounded Solutions Network member organizations signed onto the plan: Bright Community Trust, Elevation Community Land Trust, and Urban Land Conservancy. Learn more here.

NPHS's Campaign for Resilient Homeownership

Policy and Research

New Report on CLT Rental Housing

A recently published first-of-its-kind study by Grounded Solutions explores how some lasting affordability programs are reshaping rental housing amid a historic affordability crisis. The report titled Community Land Trusts in the Rental Market: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities provides a multi-faceted assessment of how some CLTs are stepping up to help families navigate a distressed rental housing market plagued by expiring affordability mandates, market pressures, and rising development costs. Read it here.  

Innovative Finance

Terner Labs Retreat

In October, Grounded Solutions staff participated in Terner Labs' 2025 Housing Venture Lab cohort retreat in Guerneville, CA. Through a series of planning sessions, they were able to connect with other housing innovators, reflect on successes and challenges in the field, and exchange ideas and inspiration for boldly addressing our country’s housing needs. Terner’s Housing Venture Lab supports entrepreneurs with new, bold ideas to make housing more equitable, accessible, and sustainable. The focus of this year’s cohort is “expanding access to homeownership and bridging persistent financing and permitting gaps that block equitable housing opportunities.” 

New Resource: 15-Minute Homes for the Future Explainer Video

We recently uploaded a standard presentation to YouTube that provides an in-depth explanation of Homes for the Future, our initiative that invests in preserving affordable single-family homes for renters and buyers in growing American cities. Click here to watch, and e-mail [email protected] if you and your partners are interested in exploring it as an option to grow shared equity home portfolios in your real estate market.

Membership and Training 

Filming for Soon-to-Be-Released Self-Paced Courses Underway

We’re in the process of developing our first-ever self-paced online interactive training course, Foundations of Shared Equity Homeownership. In mid-November, our film crew took to the streets of Washington, D.C., to capture footage of our Senior Principal of Innovative Finance, Alex Cabral, for the course. We hope to put the finishing touches on this new asynchronous video learning series soon and make it available to Grounded Solutions Network members in early 2026. The goal is to help more people better understand shared equity homeownership so we can all more effectively advocate for it in our local communities. 

Welcome to Our New Board Members

Last month, Network members voted to elect two new practitioner-directors to serve on our board of directors. One will represent Inclusionary Housing programs, and the other will represent CLTs. At our December 10 Annual Member Meeting, we officially announced them: Uri Pachter, Senior Housing Planner for the City of Evanston, IL; and Kimberly Sanchez, Executive Director of Community Home Trust (CHT) in Chapel Hill, NC. Our current Treasurer, Peter Dean, was also re-elected by the membership to serve another term as a shared equity practitioner-director. Peter leads National Co-op Community Services, the national division of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), in New York City.  

We also welcomed four new at-large board members for 2026: Brett Theodos, Lead, Local Growth and Finance at Urban Institute; Neha Shah, Director, Head of Community Development Lending at Charles Schwab Bank; Victoria Brown, Senior Director, Programs & Implementation (Mastercard Strive) DAI; and Katrina Washington, Executive Director, Neighborhood Housing Services. We thank them all for their commitment to advancing housing with lasting affordability and look forward to an exciting year of working together to achieve our shared goals.  

Welcome to the 2026 Member Drive

We’re excited to launch the 2026 Member Drive. This is an opportunity for partners, practitioners, and supporters across the country to invest in lasting affordability and strengthen the work happening every day in communities.  

Membership keeps you connected, informed, and supported within a national network advancing lasting affordability and shared equity housing. Members receive regular policy and funding updates, invitations to live and on-demand learning opportunities, discounts and scholarships for trainings, priority access to technical support, and savings on HomeKeeper services. You’ll also gain visibility through a member badge and contribute to strengthening lasting affordability in housing nationwide.  

Membership demonstrates your commitment to the shared principles that keep homes affordable for the long haul and ensure that people—no matter their income—can put down roots, build stability, and thrive. Whether you’re renewing or joining for the first time, your involvement helps advance smarter housing solutions, elevate practitioners’ voices, and expand the tools that make durable affordability possible.  

Complete your membership form today! 

Thank You to Our 2025 Members

We reached almost 300 total members this year representing 47 states and territories. We welcomed 104 first-time members, 212 organizations, and 79 individual members.   

We’re deeply grateful to our 2025 Champion Members for their extraordinary support.   

If you are not currently a Network member and would like to become one, contact [email protected]. Becoming a member provides you with access to expert support, training, tools, and peear connections, and helps advance lasting affordability nationwide.

• Shared Equity Homeownership: Meeting Demand and Preserving Supply 

• Nonprofit helps Atlanta residents fulfill dream of home ownership: "I could finally breathe" 

• Second phase of eastside project priced from mid-$200Ks in pipeline 

• How to Reclaim Land Ownership for Black Americans in the South 

• Green Bay & NeighborWorks team up for Community Land Trust 

• What community land trusts do for housing in Tahoe 

• A $100 Million Bet on Affordable Housing in Dallas 

• Critics say Boston’s inclusionary zoning hurts construction — does it? 

• Stability or speculation: What community land trusts teach us about affordable housing 

• Community land trust buys Brighton Boulevard land for $3M for housing 

• Metro’s affordable housing bond contributed to construction costs for the city’s first shared equity homes. 

• This Multi-Issue Interfaith Organizing Group Has Supported Six Housing Co-ops for Decades 

Sign up for the Homes for the Future Newsletter to learn more about our Innovative Finance team’s exciting efforts to scale housing with lasting affordability.  

Follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Instagram. 

Where we live matters.

We bring together an extensive network of partners and member practitioners from local communities who have a deep understanding of best practices in community land trusts, shared equity housing, local housing policies such as inclusionary zoning, and more.

At Grounded Solutions Network, we know what policies and strategies work to build and preserve housing opportunities, and we help communities use them.