THE GLOBAL NETWORK: AshokA Fellows innovAting in housing

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

usARosanne HaggeRty Common gRounds

Project Launch Date: 1990

Program Focus: Common Ground is a pioneer in the development of supportive housing and other research-based practices that end homelessness. Common Ground’s network of well designed, af fordable apartments—linked to the services people need to maintain their housing, restore their health, and regain their economic independence —has enabled more than 4,000 individuals to overcome homelessness.

Impact: In 2009, it opened a 3,000 unit of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York. Which created 4,000 additional units of housing for the homeless by 2015. Their housing costs approximately $36 per night to operate—significantly less than public expenditures: $54 for a city shelter bed, $74 for a state prison cell, $164 for a city jail cell, $467 for a psychiatric bed, $1,185 for a hospital bed. Their ground-breaking Street to Home program reduced street homelessness by 87% in the 20-block Times Square neighborhood, and by 43% in the surrounding 230 blocks of West Midtown. Spearheading a citywide strategy, Common Ground is now responsible for securing homes for people living on the streets in all of Brooklyn, Queens, and midtown Manhattan.

Mexicoantonio Paz CamPamentos unidos united

Program Focus: Campamentos Unidos focuses on urban planning and real estate development. It provides emergency housing and health care services to thousands of low-income families to purchase quality apartments at prices approximately half those charged by the private sector. But Antonio’s view of real-estate goes beyond the mere construction of apartments and aims at building thriving communities.

Impact: Since 1985, CU has developed over 70 buildings in Mexico City, bringing over 3,000 quality units to market. It plans to bring another 800 units to market in the next five years. There is a current waiting list of 5,000 buyers. The organization’s involvement in local community development since almost 20 years provides them with a deep understanding of people’s needs. Paz partners with government agencies, contractors, and owners to of fer a compelling value proposition for buyers and sellers. Antonio was Ashoka’s first elected fellow in Mexico in 1989. He later became an elected public of ficial and is a recognized as an expert in the field of low-income housing and community development.

inDiAela BHatt maHila Housing seWa tRust

Project Launch Date: 1994

Program Focus: MHT improves the housing and infrastructure conditions of women in the informal sector through construction of af fordable housing; improving access to financial and legal services; advising beneficiaries and disseminating information on shelter related income; and employment opportunities for working women.

Impact: MHT operates in seven cities in India reaching out to 148 slums housing 235,002 residents. MHT has been actively mobilizing communities for over ten years to ensure their legal access to water and sanitation services. Af ter listening to MHT beneficiaries, construction of low cost housing and several microfinance programs for securing legal tenement in slum settlements have been created.

BRAZilandRe alBuqueRqueteRRa nova

Project Launch Date: 2001

Program Focus: Terra Nova focuses on empowering squatter communities to assume responsibility for paying for their newly acquired land titles upon the resolution of disputes. Terra Nova helps individuals do this by of fering loans that are paid back over several years through small monthly installments. Meanwhile, landowners are paid upfront by Terra Nova for their properties.

Impact: Terra Nova now operates in five states in Brazil, as well as in the Federal District, and reaches 28 communities and some 30,000 families. Newly regularized properties typically have a market value at least 30 percent higher than that of similar properties for which title disputes remain unresolved. As a result, new landowners can more readily gain access to credit and take other measures to ensure their family’s financial security.