Shared equity housing is an important resource for tackling the affordability crisis across the United States and Puerto Rico. As home prices have skyrocketed to more than five times the median household income, standard approaches to affordable homeownership serve a dwindling number of families, because limited subsidy dollars must be spread across fewer households. Shared equity housing can assist by establishing lasting affordability that serves multiple families over time.

Given the scope and intersections of many of the issues that our communities face, partnerships serve as one way to combine resources and share strengths. Both the 2008 foreclosure crisis and the impact from COVID-19 have continued to demonstrate the complex links among housing, health, economic well-being and educational outcomes.

Kristina Aguilar's expertise was working on interior walls. DeJeaun Biggle liked the heavy lifting and tarring the foundation. But painting trim? "Tedious," he says. The neighbors worked together  to build their homes – and each other's – as a part of NeighborWorks Great Falls' Owner-Built Homes Program, which began in 2005  through USDA's Mutual Self-Help Program.