Haiti will benefit from a new affordable housing initiativethanks to efforts by World Council of Credit Unions and fundingfrom the U.S. Agency for International Development.

USAID has awarded WOCCU the Home Ownership and Mortgage Expansion program, worth$6.99 million, to catalyze the housing finance sector to createaccess to affordable housing for average Haitian households.USAID/Haiti and WOCCU, with its partners Habitat for HumanityInternational and the Affordable Housing Institute, have developeda program to work directly with Haitian financial institutions andhousing developers to support initiatives that will create andstrengthen affordable housing financial products and services inHaiti.

The end goal is to make the effort a Haitian-led and ownedinitiative.

Since 2009, WOCCU has helped Haitian financial institutionsexpand access to agricultural and rural finance through itsflagship USAID-funded HIFIVE program. With the new HOME Program,which will be led by affordable housing expert Duane Kissick, WOCCUand its partners will focus on improving the housing financemarket.

Following the 2010 earthquake, the U.S. Government, in close collaborationwith the Haitian government, developed a housing strategy to buildshort-term shelters and longer-term greenfield homes. Based onsuccesses and lessons learned from this approach, USAID/Haiti nowlooks at the entire housing value chain to find a sustainablesolution to the affordable housing shortage in Haiti.

“World Council and its partners are excited to spur thedevelopment of innovative housing finance products for low andmiddle income Haitians, who previously had little to no access toaffordable housing,” Peter Graves, WOCCU's senior vice president of technicalservices, said.