AAFE was recently awarded a $250,000 Housing for Everyone grant from the TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®. AAFE is one of 37 non-profit organizations selected from more than 450 applicants to receive a Housing for Everyone grant as part of the TD Charitable Foundation’s signature grant initiative that has helped support organizations that are focused on providing affordable housing and affordable housing services since 2005.
In recent years the housing affordability crisis has continued to be a financial burden on families. As individuals and families across the country struggle with inflation and an exponential rise in rental costs, affordable housing providers face increased hardship given the growing demand for affordable rental units and emergency rental assistance.
The grant will support AAFE’s Citywide Emergency Housing Voucher Opportunity Repair Fund Program, which began as pilot project designed to create new affordable housing for formerly homeless individuals and families. As New York City grapples with the homelessness crisis, voucher holders have experienced great difficulty in identifying available rental units. Through the program, AAFE works with homeowners and small building owners, provides grant funding for repairs to bring vacant units up to code and assists property owners in completing renovations. Grant recipients then agree to accept formerly homeless referral tenants. In the pilot, AAFE partnered with city housing agencies, as well as the New York State Attorney General’s Office and Enterprise Community Partners.
“This generous grant from the TD Charitable Foundation will make a big impact across New York City, helping our organization build a sustainable program to address the homelessness crisis,” said AAFE Executive Director Thomas Yu. “It will facilitate the preservation and creation of affordable units for some of our city’s most vulnerable residents, while enabling homeowners and small building owners to stabilize their properties and neighborhoods. The program assists low-to-moderate income homeowners, who benefit from much-needed stable rental income, as well as renters who are able to move into permanent housing they can call home. We look forward to working alongside TD Charitable Foundation for this meaningful initiative.”
“AAFE’s efforts to increase access to affordable housing for many of New York City’s most vulnerable residents is critically important,” said Andy Bregenzer, Regional President of Metro New York, TD Bank. “We are excited to support the expansion of the Citywide Emergency Housing Voucher Opportunity Repair Fund Program and the work AAFE is leading to make affordable housing more accessible across the city.”
Through the 17th annual Housing for Everyone grant competition, the TD Charitable Foundation awarded $7 million across the Bank’s Maine-to-Florida footprint and Michigan to help support affordable housing organizations who focus on preserving affordable rental housing in their work to deliver rental assistance, rehabilitate affordable rental housing properties, and build organizational capacity to address resident sustainability for the long-term. Since 2005, the TD Charitable Foundation has given more than $49 million dollars to non-profit and charitable organizations through the Housing for Everyone grant competition and helped support more than 550 affordable housing projects and initiatives.
The Housing for Everyone grant competition supports TD’s longstanding commitment to community enrichment through TD’s corporate citizenship platform, The TD Ready Commitment, which actively promotes inclusivity, economic vitality and environmental wellbeing, enabling people of all backgrounds to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
To learn more about Housing for Everyone and for a full list of this year’s grant recipients, please visit https://stories.td.com/us/en/article/td-charitable-foundation-awards-7-million-to-37-non-profits-helping-preserve-affordable-rental-housing.
About the TD Charitable Foundation
The TD Charitable Foundation is the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, one of the 10 largest commercial banking organizations in the United States. Since its inception in 2002, the Foundation has distributed over $300 million through donations to local nonprofits from Maine to Florida footprint and Michigan. More information on the TD Charitable Foundation is available at https://www.tdbank.com/corporate-responsibility/the-ready-commitment/funding-opportunities/.