MY STORY

Housing has

always

been personal.

Heather Presley-Cowen’s path from personal experience to public service—and from financing individual developments to rethinking the system itself.

Start at the Beginning →

HEATHER PRESLEY-COWEN

Before the capital stacks and housing strategies, there was a belief that a home can change what is possible.

Four chapters. One continuing commitment.

Capital stacker. Systems thinker.
Housing Factory architect.

01 Where It Started

02 Learning to Stack Capital

03 The Systems Problem

04 Building What’s Next

A CONTINUING STORY

From the meaning

of a home to the

making of a system.

CHAPTER ONE · THE PERSONAL FOUNDATION

Where It Started

The meaning of housing starts long before a financing conversation.

01 personal foundation

EXPERIENCE → INSIGHT → POSSIBILITY

Heather’s understanding of housing insecurity and her early experience of homeownership shaped a lasting commitment to housing opportunity. A home represents stability, choice, and the possibility of moving forward.

This opening chapter will be completed with Heather’s own recollections: what those experiences felt like, what changed, and what she carried into her work.

CHAPTER TWO · LEARNING THE TOOLS

Learning to Stack Capital

02 LEARNING THE TOOLS

Making the numbers work was only part of the work.

Years in local government brought Heather into the practical world of federal housing resources, public policy, and community development. Complex projects meant aligning funding rules, partners, and local priorities.

Capital stacking became a way to bring unconventional financing solutions together—to find a path forward when a single source of funding could not get a project there.

2010

Taking the work into communities

CED Services was established, extending Heather’s work with community and economic development leaders.

“I’ve spent my career solving the impossible—now I teach others to do the same.”

Heather Presley-Cowen

03 The Systems Problem

CHAPTER THREE · A DIFFERENT QUESTION

Discovering the
Systems Problem

A successful development could change a site. What would change the market around it?

Even a well-financed project could not, on its own, resolve the disconnect between housing demand, production capacity, and the capital needed to bring homes within reach.

The question became bigger: how could communities build the local capacity to keep delivering the right housing, rather than solving each development as a separate problem?

The shift: from the individual project to the whole housing system. Illustrative neighborhood photograph.

2020

A place to put the idea to work

Heather co-founded the Housing Resource Hub, creating a real-world setting for the emerging approach.

04 Building What’s Next

CHAPTER FOUR · THE WORK AHEAD

Building What’s Next

A method. A connected ecosystem. A community of local Operators.

The H.O.M.E. Method brings that systems perspective into a six-step framework. Club 720, Mission BUILD, HOME Intelligence, and Housing Factories each contribute to the work of connecting people, capital, and production.

The next chapter centers on local Operators: people who can see the whole system, connect its participants, and help it improve as their housing market changes.

THE FRAMEWORK

H.O.M.E. Method

DELIVERY & LOCAL CAPACITY

Mission BUILD & Housing Factories

HOUSEHOLD & REDINESS

CLUB 720

LEARNING ACROSS THE SYSTEM

HOME Intelligence

THE IDEA BEHIND THE WORK

A better system begins
with a different question.

Discover the H.O.M.E. Method →

Explore the method that grew out of this journey.