Renting Partnerships has been experiencing some traction with our management model (Renting Partnerships) and new financing vehicle concept (Dividend Housing). Through our partners at CUCI we were connected with Wave Pool, “a social-justice driven art cultivator and gallery and Heartfelt Tidbits, a refugee and immigrant support non-profit (cincinnati.makerfaire.com)” and co-creators of The Welcome Project. The Welcome Project is a social enterprise that trains our newest neighbors in fabrication, art skills, and store management and is currently doing a lot of work with a group of refugees who live in the neighborhood. We are exploring how to convert several properties in the neighborhood, including the units above The Welcome Project.
Renting Partnerships received several visitors this month from Yes! Magazine co-founder Sarah van Gelder, Bill and Beverly Parker, prominent business entrepreneurs, and from Bill Generett, the vice president for community engagement at Duquesne! We took them through our current property in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood, which experienced a long period of disinvestment and is now on the cusp of gentrification. They were excited by building community intentionally around shared values and the social and financial assets that can be built through that.
One of the chords that most struck them was that Renting Partnerships was an answer to gentrification – permanently. Unlike some government programs that often end after a finite period and then get sold back into the to the private speculative market, the Renting Partnerships/Dividend Housing approach acts as a land trust preventing the property from being sold. Investors can only sell their share of the property and not the property itself. We were so happy to share our model more deeply with them during their Cincinnati visits.
The Renting Partnerships/Dividend Housing working group is putting together a business plan for some of our first potential funders. We have been honing our scope and focus, getting more concrete on next steps, project timelines, and operational projections. If you would like to get involved, we are always looking to engage more partners or present our model to your community or group. Please email maria@cincinnatiunioncoop.org!
