The Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NDC) is a coalition of 16 Metro-Denver nonprofits that build homes for middle—and low-income residents and seek to strengthen neighborhoods with community-oriented businesses and innovative human services. In addition, NDC works to educate metro-area stakeholders and municipalities about the importance of affordable housing and decrease the percentage of metro-area residents who are housing-cost burdened by facilitating strategic collaboration between members.

Launched in 2009, NDC initially coordinated the efforts of metro-area nonprofits in implementing the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a congressionally funded initiative aimed at mitigating the effects of foreclosures in areas of greatest need.

NDC was a big advocate for Denver, creating an affordable housing plan in 2013 and a dedicated affordable housing fund in 2015 by demonstrating the increasing need for additional housing resources as Federal funding lagged. Collectively, the collaborative has an impressive resume, having created 7,000 affordable multifamily and single-family homes; helped 3,492 families with foreclosure prevention, housing rehabilitation, and down-payment assistance loans; and provided home-buyer assistance counseling to over 35,776 households over the last nine years.

Recently, the NDC collaborative members, including ULC, strongly advocated for much-needed housing-related resources in response to COVID-19. When the Colorado General Assembly received $70M in COVID relief funds, NDC and others successfully advocated for $20M of those funds to go to mortgage assistance, rental assistance, and eviction legal defense.

“Before NDC, collaboration within the affordable housing community was limited,” said Jonathan Cappelli, NDC’s Executive Director. “Organizations were in their own lanes of advocacy depending on where they were on the housing spectrum. NDC has become a powerful and unifying voice for the affordable housing community in Denver.”

Jonathan Cappelli is a true champion for affordable housing in the Denver metro area. An experienced urban planning, real estate, and community development professional, Cappelli is focused on finding ways to bring equitable and sustainable development to communities across Colorado. Raised in Colorado, he has witnessed the changing landscape of the state’s ‘housing market firsthand. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Political and Environmental Science from St. Olaf College and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, Cappelli worked in the Clear Creek County Planning Department, researched sustainable agriculture at the international development firm ACDI/VOCA, and he coordinated logistics for the Aspen Institute’s public programs.

Cappelli also worked at Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) as a real estate associate focused on acquisitions of community asset buildings in the Westwood and Globeville neighborhoods before becoming a policy associate and community outreach specialist. While at ULC, Cappelli began partnering more closely with the Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NDC) and Practitioners Leveraging Assets for Community Enhancement (PLACE). After working with a variety of partners in the affordable housing world, Cappelli realized that there was a broader spectrum of needs that he could help address outside of the work he was doing at ULC.

“It became clear to me that we couldn’t rely on federal resources for housing,” said Cappelli. “There was a huge need for homeownership, supportive housing, low-income housing, and workforce housing opportunities in local communities, and the federal funds were not matching up. My work at ULC became increasingly focused on policy, and it eventually made sense for me to become a consultant to focus solely on this work.”