The foundation also launched several new programs recently, including the Green Communities Initiative, a five-year, $550 million commitment to build more than 8,500 environmentally friendly homes across the country. The initiative offers financing, grants, and technical assistance to developers and encourages government agencies to “green” their affordable housing programs. “The Green Communities is astonishing in the reception that it’s getting,” says Harvey. “We have had cities call us up and say this is exactly what we need to do, and [jokingly say] we’ll take all half a billion.”
Another major initiative: the Supportive Housing Investment Partnership, a joint effort between the foundation, The Enterprise Social Investment Corp. (a subsidiary of the Rouse-established foundation, where she is secretary and a member of the board of directors), and the Corporation for Supportive Housing. The public-private endeavor combines grants, technical expertise, low-interest loans, and equity investments through the low-income housing tax credit to increase the supply of supportive housing.
The biggest challenge to building supportive housing is finding quality, affordable sites, says Harvey. And the challenges of tackling these types of initiatives will only get tougher, given the Bush administration’s proposed cutbacks for affordable housing, Harvey adds. “I feel like we [the company] are schizophrenic at this particular point,” he says. “We are stronger than at any point we have been, and yet we are looking at a cliff up ahead.”
Despite such uncertainties, The Enterprise Foundation plans to continue working for the cause of affordable housing. After all, Rouse refuses to let her family’s dream of a better tomorrow slip through the cracks. And she has no plans of retiring any time soon, which doesn’t surprise any of her co-workers.
“That sounds like her,” says Barbara Moore, chairperson of the board of Jubilee Housing, a nonprofit housing group in Washington, D.C., where Rouse serves on the board. “She just keeps going.”