As a Purpose Futures Fellow, Aaron Thomas is building Shawman Holdings, a long-term multifamily real estate strategy that replicates the wealth-building power of home equity in the rental market. “Community Equity” accumulates monthly in a vehicle corresponding with each resident (funded with ~10% of each month’s rent) and grows in an illiquid manner until it “vests” (after 5 or 7 years) and the resident can draw down all of their accumulated capital for whatever purposes they choose. A resident can draw down Community Equity prior to fully vesting for approved emergency costs, medical expenses andeducational expenses. We will begin with acquisition and rehab of existing multifamily assets and fill vacancies with section 8 voucher holders; we intend to provide community focused amenities that foster public health, educational attainment and poverty alleviation.

Aaron Thomas is President and CEO of Accelerator for America, a national nonprofit co-founded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017. Guided by a network of mayors, labor leaders, corporate CEOs and non-profit executives from across the country, the Accelerator’s mission is to find and develop solutions to economic insecurity and share them with cities nationwide.

Since its founding, the Accelerator has developed community wealth-building tools that are being used by more than 70 cities nationwide, and it has helped local communities generate more than $40 billion in funding for transit and transportation infrastructure through local ballot initiatives. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it developed a financial assistance model in Los Angeles that distributed $37 million to help affected communities that is now being adopted by two states and eight cities nationwide. It is also leading the implementation of place-based recovery playbooks to help cities rebuild and recover from the pandemic while assisting mayors across the country in understanding and maximizing federal stimulus funding.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

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