The Raise­Op believes that we need to offer new models of housing development that organizes the power of people most affected by these issues. Our new affordable housing cooperative foregrounds leadership development, social integration, democratic decision­making, and communtiy ownership as a means to provide equitable housing for residents. As they secure and develop safe and healthy homes for themselves, they also have a mechanism to expand those same opportunities to their neighbors.

The Raise­Op seeks to transform the way in which people relate to housing, their neighbors, property ownership, and community. We organize downtown residents to develop and maintain their own homes through cooperation with their neighbors, across boundaries of social difference. The apartment buildings that we acquire are owned and managed by a diverse community of residents who steward the property as a public resource, rather than as a commodity. In the process, residents achieve greater economic stabilty, strengthened social fabric, and an enhanced ability to mobilize as a group to advance the mission of the organization, as well as other mutual causes. Rather than private profit, we build Group Equity ­ social and financial equity that remains within the organization and is leveraged to benefit residents and their surrounding neighborhood, today and into the future.

http://www.raiseop.com/