In contrast to a straightforward housing subsidy, a rewards system necessitates meeting predefined quality, efficiency, and accountability criteria before funding is allocated, both on the supply and demand sides. Linking financial incentives to particular outcomes ensures that capacity building aligns with a shift in behaviors and operational methods. This is the model HOME has implemented in Haiti. In a extreme situation of housing crisis, this system has been applied to either supply and demand sites of the market. The goal: to provide affordable houses to a middle and low class.

Haiti faces a significant housing deficit, estimated at 500,000 units, which accounts for nearly 25% of the nation's total housing stock for a population of 10 million. This disparity underscores the inaccessibility of formal housing for the majority of Haitians, especially considering the average house price in Port-au-Prince is USD 250,000, while the average annual wage remains below USD 800. Moreover, access to home financing is severely limited, with only about 400 mortgages available countrywide. The formal real estate market in Haiti has predominantly catered to high-income housing, leaving the middle class underserved, as developers and financial institutions perceive them as high-risk.

In response to this pressing need, the US Agency for International Development-funded HOME program has been initiated as a three-year endeavor aimed at capacity building within Haiti's private sector. Its primary objective is to facilitate the financing and construction of affordable housing and infrastructure. HOME operates on both the supply and demand sides of the housing economic value chain, collaborating with Haitian companies to incentivize affordable housing projects.

On the supply side, HOME partners with real estate developers and landowners to support affordable and market-driven housing initiatives. By employing pay-for-performance mechanisms, HOME encourages developers to target low-income households, minimize risks, expedite construction, and lower home prices. Additionally, to ensure adherence to high environmental standards, HOME has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to enable developers to obtain EDGE certification. These partnerships offer incentives to offset the additional investment required for ecological building standards, thus preventing price escalation for buyers.

Concurrently, on the demand side, HOME collaborates with financial institutions to address barriers to housing access in Haiti. The program advocates for larger banks to expand their mortgage portfolios and extend services to lower income segments. It also supports smaller institutions through technical assistance to enhance credit underwriting procedures, sales force training, and monitoring, thereby facilitating portfolio growth. Financial institutions are incentivized through pay-for-performance structures to expand their portfolios while maintaining low portfolio at risk (PAR) levels and increasing participation of households headed by women.

Haiti HOME has begun to invigorate the real estate market and empower local stakeholders to continue building and financing affordable homes beyond the program's duration. The program has already trained three local developers to target the lower-middle class, with three construction sites underway and two already receiving preliminary EDGE Green Building certification. Real estate developers have mobilized over USD 10 million of their own capital, a significant investment for the Haitian sector. HOME persists in collaborating with these developers to design larger projects to meet the needs of the Haitian population.

In terms of the demand side, HOME works with banks and credit cooperatives to enhance access to home financing, particularly for informal homes, having already mobilized over USD 6 million in mortgages and other home loans, benefiting more than 700 families.

Central to HOME's success is its program model, which focuses on incentivizing existing actors through a pay-for-performance approach on both the supply and demand sides of the housing market. Rather than imposing predetermined solutions or relying on traditional direct financing models, HOME rewards specific outcomes for financial institutions and developers through its HOME Facility fund. This approach encourages contractors to innovate in risk mitigation, organizational efficiency, and human resource development to foster affordable housing solutions in Haiti.