
Making Housing a Priority.
The Housing Crisis
America is facing a housing affordability crisis. Every day millions of families, senior citizens, and veterans struggle to keep a roof over their head. Yet in communities across the nation, rents continue to rise while incomes remain stagnate.
Today, more than 10 million Americans with lower incomes pay more than 50% of the incomes in rent. Families with one full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford to pay the rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States. Meanwhile, homelessness, perhaps the most visible symptom of this affordability crises, is growing at an alarming rate in communities across the county.
CHI Mission
Cooper Housing Institute is a nonprofit foundation that strives to make housing a priority in the United States by supporting research and programs that address housing affordability and homelessness.

Our Why
We believe everyone in the United States should have access to affordable housing. Decent living standards increase quality of life, health, and happiness of not only individuals and families, but their larger community as well.
Our Expertise
We know the space, and through our expertise have identified areas where the most impact can be made. We weave our deep experience in the affordable housing industry into our passion for contributing to solutions to the housing crisis in the United States.
CHI Values
Family and Home
A family foundation, Cooper Housing Institute is underpinned by 50 years of experience working to create a future where individuals and families can thrive with access to affordable housing.
Dignity
Every individual and family has the right to live with dignity in a decent and affordable home, and greater access creates greater opportunity.
Working Together
CHI aims to fund and promote knowledge sharing with influential partners nationwide, seeking to prioritize the issue of housing for all by working across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Giving Back
Building on a family legacy of expanding affordable housing, the Institute dedicates time and resources in an extension of our commitment to local communities.
CHI Insights

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $250,000 Grant to The Housing Narrative Lab

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $50,000 Grant to University of California, Santa Barbara

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $300,000 Grant for the Development of Feature-Length Documentary, “A Solution to Homelessness”

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $100,000 Grant to South County Outreach

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $100,000 Grant to Illumination Foundation

Cooper Housing Institute Awards $50,000 Grant to Mercy House Living Centers for Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Cooper Housing Institute Selects Advisory Board Members

Cooper Family Forms National Nonprofit Housing Foundation

Affordable Rental Housing — A Lesson in Supply and Demand

Combatting Homelessness with Affordable Housing

WNC Founder Will Cooper Sr. Awarded Prestigious Honor for His Lifetime of Exceptional Commitment to Affordable Housing
