Ford Foundation: $200 million for revitalization

The Ford Foundation in May unveiled a national, five-year, $200 million program designed to change the way that cities, suburbs, and surrounding communities grow and plan for the future. The effort, called Metropolitan Opportunity, includes a substantial component that is geared towards affordable transit-oriented development (TOD).

Ford’s president, Luis A. Ubiñas, cited examples of TOD projects that could be funded through the program. These include 25 transit villages along the San Francisco Bay Area’s BART transit system; Detroit’s M1 light-rail initiative; and redevelopment of New Orleans’ historic Claiborne Avenue. Many in New Orleans would like to reroute a section of I-10 built over the central part of Claiborne Avenue so the local thoroughfare can become a proper boulevard again.

Metropolitan Opportunity is also active in Flint, Michigan, Greater New York, Boston, and the Twin Cities, Don Chen, program manager for the Ford Foundation, told New Urban News. Small grants have also been made in Seattle, San Diego, and Washington, DC, Chen says.

“Our overall goal is poverty reduction and better access to economic development,” Chen says. “TOD is a key strategy in helping people to achieve that.”

Ford Foundation supports local nonprofit groups that are trying to promote visions of affordable TOD, sound planning, and good public process, he says. The foundation has recently started making “program-related investments” in the form of very low-interest loans.  

Fruitvale Village in Oakland is the archtype for affordable TOD, Chen says.

The foundation also will look for opportunities to create permanently affordable housing through approaches such as “shared equity” homeownership. This is defined as families receiving a public subsidy to buy a home and agreeing to share the equity they earn with the government, which then makes those funds available to other families.

Ford also cited programs in metropolitan Detroit, New Orleans, Flint, Michigan, and elsewhere to establish regional land bank authorities aimed at enabling communities to revitalize blighted areas and boost housing opportunities. The program will help fund the Center for Community Progress, a new national resource center for communities, providing training and technical assistance for regions that want to develop land bank authorities.