Manna’s Mission: is to offer and advocate for quality, equitable, safe and sustainable housing by preserving and creating affordable for-sale and rental housing and provide pathways for long-term homeownership.

Manna’s Vision: Our community trusts Manna as committed developers and stewards of affordable for-sale and rental housing by being consistently people-centric, creating, and effective in our work to narrow the racial wealth gap and stabilize neighborhoods.

Over the last four decades, Manna’s commitment to helping low- and moderate-income persons acquire quality housing has resulted in over 1,900 units of affordable housing. Based on a study completed in 2015, we have helped our buyers collectively accumulate over $160 million in home equity. Manna began in 1982 to renovate and sell homes to formerly homeless families graduating from transitional housing, as well as to serve low-to-moderate income households searching for affordable homes. The vision was to help families end intergenerational poverty.

In 1982, cheap property was plentiful in the District of Columbia, but mortgage interest rates were 18% and few banks were lending money to low-income people. So, Rev. Jim Dickerson and his wife Grace mortgaged their home and friends loaned MANNA seed money to renovate and sell its first home to a lower-income, formerly homeless family. Proceeds from that sale helped finance subsequent homes, recycling money into future projects. This fund exists to this day.

Today, low-to-moderate income households purchasing a home in the Washington DC region face tougher challenges than in the 1980s when Manna began its work. As more and more people move into the region, many are cost burdened and face an expensive housing market, rapid home price appreciation, and a cumbersome mortgage and down payment system.

Manna offers an array of housing communities and comprehensive housing services. In addition to homebuyer education, and homeownership development addressing the limited supply of affordable units in the region, Manna’s work expanded to create new, and preserve existing affordable rental housing. Manna’s mission and work is needed now more than ever to retain low- and moderate-income workers, and build more inclusive, healthy communities.