Program Advances Equity and Sustainability in Housing
CONCORD, N.H. – Terner Labs this week announced the fifth cohort of entrepreneurs – including ROC USA – selected for the Housing Venture Lab, an accelerator providing wraparound support for bold new ideas to make housing more equitable, accessible, and sustainable.
For the 2024 cohort, Terner Labs sought ventures whose work removes barriers to building faster, cheaper housing while keeping marginalized populations at the forefront, supporting low-income renters, breaking cycles of poverty and wealth inequality, and advancing sustainability.
“The ventures in this year’s cohort bring a variety of innovative approaches to today’s housing crisis,” said Ben Metcalf, Chief Executive Officer at Terner Labs. “Some are addressing urgent housing needs by quickly building homes on underutilized land; others are helping community organizations take advantage of new funding sources. All six bring an equity lens to their work, with an understanding of housing as a pathway to health, dignity, and building opportunity. Together, these innovators have the potential to both improve lives in the short term and change the future of the housing market in the United States.”
Selected ventures will receive a $75,000 seed grant, six months of expert coaching and access to the Terner Labs and Center network, including a growing Housing Venture Lab alumni network.
“Joining the Housing Lab cohort is a very important step in our response to industry consolidation and our strategy to accelerate the growth of shared equity community ownership through portfolio acquisition and interim ownership in our new subsidiary, Integrity Community Solutions,” said Paul Bradley, CEO of ROC USA and Integrity Community Solutions (ICS).
Bradley said he and David Doyon, CFO of both ROC USA and ICS, will participate in the cohort and look forward to coaching on impact equity structuring and sourcing.
The other ventures selected for this year’s Housing Venture Lab are:
ABOUT THE HOUSING VENTURE LAB
Founded in 2019, the Housing Venture Lab is an accelerator providing wraparound support for entrepreneurs with new, bold ideas to make housing more equitable, accessible, and sustainable. The Housing Venture Lab is a program of Terner Labs, the sister 501(c)3 nonprofit of Terner Center for Housing Innovation at U.C. Berkeley.
The Housing Lab has previously worked with 22 nonprofit and for-profit ventures, nearly two-thirds of which have been led by people of color. Alumni have gone on to raise over $490 million and improve the lives of more than 163,000 people.
The Housing Venture Lab is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, The Hilton Foundation, The Ivory Foundation, The Howard and Irene Levine Family Foundation, The Making Waves Foundation, The Ballmer Group and several other philanthropic organizations and individuals.