Ten organizations now have $200,000 each to sharpen their plans for making homeownership more affordable in their communities, as part of the first round of funding from Capital One’s $25 million homeownership initiative.
Capital One, the Capital One Foundation and Chicago-based nonprofit Lever for Change announced the finalists for Scaling Pathways to Homeownership, a national grant competition that launched in 2025 as part of Capital One’s five-year, $265 billion Community Benefits Plan. Lever for Change, a Chicago-based nonprofit, runs public grant competitions that connect donors with organizations and has influenced more than $2.7 billion in grants, according to the organization.
More than 500 organizations applied, according to the announcement, and 67 percent of them applied as formal partnerships. Lever for Change ran the review, which drew on hundreds of peer reviewers and experts in housing, philanthropy and community development. Finalists were selected on four criteria: Whether their proposals were innovative, impactful, bridge-building and durable.
Each finalist will spend three months refining its proposal with technical assistance from nonprofit consultancy Spring Impact. The five organizations selected next spring will receive their awards over five years to carry out their plans.
The proposals include early financing for community land trusts, changes to local building rules, shared ownership models, paths for renters to buy the homes they occupy and homebuyer guidance tailored to specific communities.
“The Open Call reflects the core mission of Capital One’s Community Benefits Plan: Turning innovative ideas into scalable, real-world solutions for low- and moderate-income communities,” Kerone Vatel, senior vice president and head of community finance, impact and investment at Capital One, said in a statement.
The finalists are:
- Community Redevelopment Agency of Jackson Inc., Jackson, Tennessee
- Four Bands Community Fund, Eagle Butte, South Dakota
- Great Lakes Housing Services, Lansing, Michigan
- Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County, New York City
- Hope Enterprise Corp., Jackson, Mississippi
- Mountain Shadow Association, Lodge Grass, Montana
- The Resurrection Project, Chicago
- Self-Help Enterprises, Visalia, California
- Southside Community Development and Housing Corp., Richmond, Virginia
- St. Louis Community Foundation Inc., St. Louis
Some finalists described what they would do with the funding:
- Hope Enterprise: Its Y-16 program provides mortgage products that help long-term renters buy their homes, CEO Bill Bynum said in a statement. “For a family that has rented the same home for 15 years, becoming its owner is more than a real estate transaction,” Bynum said.
- Four Bands Community Fund: An award would add 125 homeownership units to the Cheyenne River housing stock, Executive Director Lakota Vogel said.
- Self-Help Enterprises: The organization plans to combine new mortgage products with lower-cost construction methods in California’s San Joaquin Valley, President and CEO Tom Collishaw said.
