C.H.I.C. Development Corp

Grant Funding Needed to Build a New Affordable and Sustainable Home

Needs Summary

We are seeking financial donations to construct a new single-family affordable home using an innovative and sustainable approach that employs steel containers as the exterior material. This new home will serve as a model unit at the Tampa Home Show over Labor Day weekend and ultimately be sold to a low- to moderate-income (LMI) borrower or placed in an LMI tract for sale.

Donation (Financial)

$75,000 (full or partial support)

March 31, 2020

Details of Need

In addition to building and selling affordable, sustainable homes, C.H.I.C. Development Corp. works to educate people about green building and sustainable homeownership. This includes energy-efficiency and environmentally friendly products. As part of this effort, we are participating in the 2018 Tampa Home Show to exhibit one of our housing units, engage with the community about our mission, and ultimately sell the model home to a qualified LMI borrower. Banks donations for this initiative will not only cover the cost of building a model home for the Tampa Home Show, but will also enable us to sell the home to a qualified LMI borrower and educate people about green-building and sustainable homeownership.

We work with several partners who support our mission, one of which is a non-profit community revitalization and development organization which can has offered to serve as the fiscal agent for any bank financial donations. Other partners include a builder specializing in energy efficiency and environmental-friendly building, a nonprofit specializing in training and employing veterans, and a CDFI nonprofit based in Palm Beach County, who is committed to providing construction financing for additional homes to be built.

Community Impact

The majority of individuals in our home community are cost burdened, which means they are spending over 50% of their income on housing. This number is even higher in the LMI census tracts. In order to address this need directly, our organization builds affordable, sustainable homes using green-building techniques that lower construction and maintenance costs and pass along the savings to LMI home buyers in the form of lower home prices.

By participating in the Tampa Home show over Labor Day weekend, we will not only educate the public about our organization's cost-saving, sustainable approach to building homes, but also have the opportunity to build an affordable energy-efficient model home which will ultimately be sold to an LMI individual or family. By utilizing steel containers as the exterior material, as well as other eco-friendly products, our homes not only reduce the overall cost of housing by lowering construction costs, they also reduce energy bills on an ongoing basis. Additionally, our homes create jobs in our community by utilizing local labor, many of whom are veterans who have received specialized training in green-building.