We are so excited to announce that the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) Fund will be included in the FY 2023 spending bill.
Since October 2021, CDI has been coordinating a regional effort to advocate for federal funding for ROC infrastructure, as part of a national campaign with ROC USA. ROCs often inherit faulty infrastructure from prior owners when they purchase their communities. Often water and sewer lines have fallen into disrepair or road and tree management has been neglected by corporate landlords. The power of Resident Ownership means that residents care about upkeep, maintenance, and the sustainability of community resources. However, there are many barriers to ROCs accessing existing public funds to help offset the cost of remedying these issues that residents are excited and ready to fix. As a response, CDI. has been increasing our advocacy efforts with state, federal and local governments and we have been starting to celebrate some big policy wins, including this most recent one!
This summer we focused on passing the PRICE program, a new $225M grant program that will provide funding directly to ROCs to address these infrastructure needs. The program will also provide support to non-profit communities as well as organizations that support manufactured housing communities. Additionally there is funding in the program to support conversions to resident ownership so that more manufactured homeowners may access all the benefits of cooperative ownership.
Today we learned that our advocacy efforts paid off! On December 23, 2023, Congress voted to pass the FY 2023 omnibus spending bill, which includes the creation of PRICE among a number of other housing priorities. From the Transportation Housing and Urban Development subcommittee all the way to the floor of the Senate: it’s clear that federal policy makers see the clear value in supporting ROCs as a long term affordable housing solution. Read more about PRICE and all the work that was done to ensure its passage in this story at ROCUSA.org.
ROC leaders were at the forefront of this effort every step of the way. Residents met with Congresspeople and Senators and their staff, spoke up in strategy meetings, wrote Op Eds, led tours for policy makers of their communities, and more. CDI provided resources for leaders to take action, including template letters, coaching on storytelling, creating advocacy templates for other organizations to use, and setting up meetings with elected officials.
The PRICE program is a lifeline for ROC residents. The health and safety of their communities will be vastly improved by this new initiative. CDI wants to thank all the ROC leaders who shared their stories and made their voices heard in order to elevate the importance of this program to Congressional leaders. On top of all their additional responsibilities managing their co-op, these leaders set a nationwide example for what it means to show up for the ROC movement.
We also want to thank our partners at ROC USA and in the ROC USA Network. Lastly, we are hugely grateful to all the policy makers and staffers who spent time listening to testimony, touring communities, and understanding the unique problems ROCs face.
This is a huge victory for ROCs and manufactured housing residents across the country, and we’re looking forward to the next steps of implementing the program.
Get all the details about PRICE in this great article from ROC USA.
