Rochester Area Foundation--First Homes

Supported by a $7 million donation from the area's leading anchor institution and employer the Mayo Clinic (which employs 28,000 in a city of 95,000), the Rochester Area Foundation in 1999 launched First Homes. Mayo's leading donation led to an additional $7 million in donations, leveraging an additional $115 million. To date, 420 new single-family homes and more than 225 new below-market-rate rental units have been built. Of those single-family totals, more than four dozen are community land trust properties, one of the first times an anchor institution has directly supported the development of this permanently affordable housing model.