As federal support for the CDFI industry remains uncertain, The Alliance has shifted its focus to where power is moving and where impact can be made now: cities and states.
In September 2025, The Alliance launched Housing Justice Champions (HJC), a first-of-its-kind accelerator designed to equip Black-led CDFIs with the tools, skills, and confidence to build power locally and advance equitable housing policy.
Through HJC, The Alliance brought together a geographically diverse cohort of CDFI leaders who are passionate about playing a larger role in the policy change in their communities. The inaugural HJC cohort included 10 competitively selected Alliance members based in red, blue, and purple states and cities across the Northeast, Southeast and the Deep South, Midwest, and Southwest. The cohort also included both seasoned and novice advocates who represent organizations with asset sizes ranging from $5 million to $42 million.
At the start of the program, each cohort member identified policy barriers their organizations face in pursuing housing justice in their communities, which often included a shortage of affordable housing stock, rising home prices, and increased pressure on state and local governments as federal funding declines and policies restrict equitable housing solutions.
Over two months, these members rapidly grew their policy advocacy knowledge, skills and confidence through targeted expertise and hands-on support.
Stewarded by solidarity economics law firm Gilmore Khandhar LLC, the program combined an original curriculum and facilitated group trainings with more than 30 hours of individualized coaching, through which Alliance members:
- Collected and analyzed data on their local housing ecosystems to set advocacy priorities
- Conducted power-mapping exercises to identify advocacy allies, targets, and key decision-makers
- Set specific, measurable, and achievable campaign goals that were meaningful to their organizations and their communities
- Developed clear strategies and implementation plans grounded in their organizations’ realities.
In creating these tools for their organizations, participants learned how to institutionalize their influence and shift their advocacy from reactive to intentional.
“[HJC] gave us a way to succeed even if I’m not in the room,” said Rose Washington-Jones, CEO of TEDC Creative Capital. “Initially, I thought that advocacy was about connecting with a decision-maker and passionately making a case. I never really thought through the case with hard data that really matters. And I’ve always resisted advocacy because it’s something that we don’t have funding to do, since many of our grants restrict lobbying. This experience opened my eyes to the importance of data. When the data is present, you don’t have to convince—your case speaks for itself.”
In addition to tools and strategy, Alliance members also gained confidence in collective power to shape the policies that directly impact their localities. CommunityWorks serves as a great example of how The Alliance can inspire Black-led CDFIs to identify new collaborators that can help drive more investment and impact in housing justice locally.
“[HJC] allowed us to look at power-building in a different way,” said Latorrie Geer, CEO of CommunityWorks, a South Carolina-based CDFI working on a campaign to enlist the local business community to support affordable housing creation. “It sometimes feels like we’re one organization in a wheel and supplying this engine of information. But we have power—we’re boots on the ground, and we speak for a group of people who are unable to speak for themselves. We should be leading these conversations…our organization can provide much-needed information to others, but we should also be able to utilize that on our own.”
HJC also inspired participants to expand coalitions and forge new partnerships. Andre Whittington, Executive Director at Growth Partners Arizona (GPAz), applied his learnings from HJC to join the Arizona Housing Coalition, where his organization helped secure a systems change grant. GPAz is now exploring a partnership with a local housing funder to create a predevelopment loan product for small start-up developers.
“If you don’t go through this process, you can’t even have the conversation,” Whittington said. “Now I can sit with partners and know exactly what I’m talking about.”
This work is made possible through the continued support of Melville Charitable Trust, whose partnership helps advance housing justice through Black CDFI leaders by expanding insight, opportunity, and impact for underserved communities.
As we look ahead, The Alliance remains committed to filling in gaps in federal-level support by empowering Black-led CDFIs to grow their power, strategy, and voice for local policy change.
Housing Justice Champions Inaugural Cohort:
- African Economic Development Solutions (St. Paul, MN)
- Community Works (Greenville, SC)
- Growth Partners Arizona (Phoenix, AZ)
- Historic District Development Corporation (Atlanta, GA)
- Neighborhood Development Center (St. Paul, MN)
- Neighborhood Housing Service of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
- Neighborworks Sacramento (Sacramento, CA)
- TEDC Creative Capital (Tulsa, OK)
- The Housing Fund (Nashville, TN)
- Urban League of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
