Renting Partnerships create opportunities for renters to invest in the upkeep and management of affordable housing and build financial assets. We challenge the exclusive rights of owners to build wealth by controlling real estate. Our mission is to create communities that allow renters to add value, receive a return, and remain for a lifetime.
This pioneering model, Rental Equity, overcomes barriers to wealth building for low-income households by not requiring individual mortgages. A nonprofit organization, Renting Partnerships, owns the housing and supports participatory management. Leases include agreements to attend monthly meetings, participate in upkeep, and stay at least five years. These actions mitigate some of the usual expenses of operating rental housing and the savings are used to fund financial credits. Residents value being part of a community where they can be stable and grow physically, intellectually, spiritually, and economically.
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We need an alternative form of ownership that allows lower income households to remain in existing neighborhoods, invest in their housing and build financial equity. Renting Partnerships was founded for this.
Black households have about 1/10th the net worth of white households. One of the primary reasons is that their median household income is not enough to buy a home that will appreciate in value. The median income of black households is about $35,000 less per year than the median income of white households. The racial wealth gap is growing because there is no alternative to homeownership which allows households to build financial assets. Renting Partnerships is a nonprofit (501.c.3) that acquires and rehabilitates housing to create Rental Equity and to combat "gentrification." We hold the housing in trust for the community so that residents can build financial equity by staying long term and taking care of their housing, rather than buying and selling property. Because vacancy and turnover is low, money budgeted for these expenses can be reserved and used to make payments to residents. Each household earns credits according to a predetermined schedule in the lease. Credits are earned every month that residents pay rent on time, attend the management meeting and complete work assignments. The credits grow up to $10,000 every ten years and can be used to pay rent, freeing up income for other uses, after five years. |
Income and Wealth disparities between black and white households
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Compare to Owning & Renting
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Opportunities & Challenges
Renting Partnerships creates economic opportunities which don't exist for people in either traditional ownership or rental housing. By providing long term leases and a cooperative management system that makes management more efficient, we create a path to building financial assets. Current public policies focused on creating affordable housing units are not addressing the economic inequities that fuel the need for housing subsidies.
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