Grantee Week Day 5 – Housing Affordability

To round out Grantee Week we are excited to share the inaugural grantees of our Housing Affordability grant program. During Triangle Community Foundation's most recent strategic planning process in 2024, we heard from stakeholders a desire to be more bold in addressing challenging issues in our region. We identified housing affordability as a key issue that our community foundation is uniquely suited to support with grantmaking, impact investing, advocacy, convening, and more.

In the early spring of 2025, the Foundation hosted four county convenings across our service area that brought together over 200 elected officials, municipal housing staff, nonprofit leaders, fundholders, developers, and other key stakeholders with a vested interest in understanding and identifying possible collaborative solutions to housing affordability challenges. We then hosted a regional gathering in May to share out information gleaned from our county convenings and a regional housing report. These convenings provided us with helpful information to further guide our housing affordability efforts.

Housing affordability is a critical issue in the Triangle region, impacting both individuals and the overall economic health of the area. Recent population growth and related surge in demand has driven up housing prices dramatically, making it increasingly challenging for many to find affordable places to live. This lack of affordability especially affects essential workers like teachers, service industry employees, and young professionals, potentially forcing them to commute long distances or even leave the area, impacting the region's workforce and overall quality of life.

We are pleased to award $25,000 one-year grants in our introductory, discretionary program, supporting 15 Triangle housing affordability nonprofits, for a total of $375,000. Funding is in support of general operations of these organizations with the following goals:

• Triangle residents have opportunities to access and maintain safe, affordable, stable housing along the housing continuum
• Understand and promote promising practices to increase access to safe, affordable, stable housing

In the coming years, we aim to help promote a coordinated, focused approach that leverages the Foundation's core strengths-strategic grantmaking, convening, and philanthropic leadership-to catalyze regional collaboration and increased investment in safe, stable housing.

Congratulations to our first cohort of grantees!