Unlocking
Access

We are excited to present our 2023 Impact Report titled Unlocking Access. This year, we reflect on how we have adapted and enhanced our business capabilities to align with the evolving needs of our stakeholders—our residents, communities, investors, and employees. This report serves as an overview of the key impact-driven initiatives we prioritized throughout 2023. 
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Who We Serve

DID YOU KNOW?

720 credit score and $100,000+2 are typical standards to be able to buy a home in the United States.

Amherst expands access and housing choice for renters across the United States. Rentership serves millions of families in the U.S. housing economy. Over the past 50 years, approximately 30-40% of Americans have rented their homes. Today, about 34%1 of families rent their home, either by necessity or by choice. Families today are renting for longer, working from home more, and finding it harder than ever to access the home purchase market. As these families face higher barriers to homeownership and need to rent for longer periods, they are also having more children and are ready to graduate from multifamily living. That is why we have augmented our suite of housing solutions to provide residents with the choice of high quality, attainable housing near good schools and employment centers. We actively monitor resident’s rent-to-income ratios to ensure our homes and monthly rent costs are best serving middle-income families with limited single-family housing choice in the United States.

Typical
Amherst Home

3 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

1,660 Square Feet

1992 Average Vintage

Amherst
Resident Profile3

3 Members Per Household

29-45 Years Old

653 Credit Score

$1,920Monthly Rent

$92,800 Household Income

22.9% Rent-to-Income

Resident Occupation Breakdown3

  • Health Care & Social Assistance
  • Finance & Insurance
  • Manufacturing & Logistics
  • Construction, Real Estate, Mining, & Utilities
  • Professional, Scientific & Tech
  •  Management & Executive 
  •  Retail & Whole Sale Trade 
  •  Educational & Public Service
  •  Accommodation & Food 
  • Other Services
  •  Unknown 
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Learn more about Our Residents

CARES: Early Intervention

To Promote Housing Stability

“I believe that housing 
is a foundational right for 
all people. Without housing stability, it is challenging 
to thrive in other areas of 
our lives.” 

Picture of Robyn Schoen

Robyn Schoen

Vice President, CARES

Launched in 2017 as a first-of-its-kind program, the CARES (Client Assessment Resources and Empowerment Services) program educates and empowers residents to achieve greater housing stability through resource-sharing, advocacy, and social-emotional support.

The CARES team is made up of social workers and program specialists working with community organizations and across the Amherst platform to support renters’ housing stability and create stronger communities. Through CARES, we are using evidence-based approaches to decrease rates of resident default and improve social welfare for thousands of residents.

The CARES team is a resource to help residents before they experience financial hardship. If residents feel concerned about housing or financial stability, CARES specialists can provide connections to resources that can help and support their emotional wellbeing during difficult times. All residents are encouraged to reach out whenever they feel the need for additional support and a member of the CARES team will work hand-in-hand with the resident to provide case management services that navigate current challenges and proactively plan for the future.

2023 CARES
by the numbers 

2,800+

Total number of residents served

1,000+

Residents graduated from case management services* 

78

Average amount of days resident receives case management services**

*Includes roll-over residents from 2022


**Data from June-December 2023

Learn More About our CARES Program

Home Transformations

Amherst invests on average $40,000-50,000 in initial repairs on each home on its platform to bring them back into their useful life and ensure they are habitable for a growing family. This heavy investment into scattered-site home preservation helps combat the nation’s housing supply crisis.

Renovation Cost
$116,000+

Renovation Cost
$95,000+
Renovation Cost
$62,000+
Renovation Cost
$70,000+
Learn more about our Scattered-Site Home Preservation

StudioBuilt by Amherst:
Offsite Home Development

StudioBuilt, founded by Amherst, is an innovative modular home building solution that utilizes offsite construction to create new housing supply at scale, producing hundreds of quality, new homes in communities of opportunity every year.

StudioBuilt Cuero
Grand Opening 

In April 2023, Amherst announced the grand opening of its first StudioBuilt manufacturing facility in Cuero, Texas. 

In 2021, Amherst purchased a closed textile factory in Cuero, Texas and transformed it into the first StudioBuilt manufacturing facility. In just the first year after purchasing the mill, Amherst invested over $7 million with local vendors to repurpose the 330,000 square foot factory into a state of-the-art modular housing studio with the goal of building hundreds of homes each year. As part of this extensive rehabilitation, Amherst removed lead paint and radioactive materials to make the facility a safe place to work. 

“Our StudioBuilt homes initiative is a testament to our commitment to identifying innovative solutions to combat the nation’s housing crisis by increasing affordable housing supply in areas of opportunity.” 

Sean Dobson

Chairman, CEO, and CIO

OUR IMPACT

250+ 

Jobs Created

3rd

Largest Employer in the Area

60

Homes Per Month Build Capacity

14mm+

Material & Sub-Contractor Payments/Year

40%

Less Construction Waste

Learn more about StudioBuilt

Vendors and Investment
in Local Economies 

Amherst has invested more than $1.6 billion in local vendors and materials in our markets of operation since inception.

Birmingham, 
Alabama

2016

Year Founded

6

Years working with Main Street Renewal
JH Lawn Care is a family-owned business founded by Matt and Jeanna Hall, providing landscaping, lawn care, fence work, and home improvement services to Birmingham residents. JH is one of our longest tenured vendor partners in Birmingham and a top tree removal vendor in the city. JH also partnered with MSR on a recurring services pilot program that enabled our platform to provide regular, ongoing lawn care to our homes still under construction. Matt and Jeanna go beyond the traditional vendor by working directly with Homeowner Associations (HOAs) across Birmingham. This allows them to better help the homes they work on and uphold the standards set by these community associations. Focused on improving curb appeal and the structural integrity of the homes they work on, JH has played a critical role in helping revitalize Birmingham neighborhoods. 
“Our partnership with Main Street Renewal has allowed us to expand our services and the areas we serve. When we began in 2016, we started with only lawn care in the Birmingham area. Now we have expanded our services with multiple crews all across central Alabama. We are attempting to expand to north Alabama to cover Huntsville and its surrounding areas in the spring of 2024 with the help of Main Street Renewal.” 
Matt
JH Lawn

Tampa, Florida

2019

Year Founded

4

Years working with Main Street Renewal
Rolando’s HVAC is a minority-owned family business that provides crucial services, such as cooling, heating, and electrical repairs to our homes across Florida. Rolando’s team is incredibly dedicated to quality service and has become one of our most trusted partners for our HVAC needs through their consistent and exceptional work. Rolando’s business has grown immensely alongside MSR, expanding their services from the Tampa Bay area to the entire state. As a family business, Rolando’s HVAC cares deeply about their employees, their customers, and their operating partners like MSR. In addition to being an incredibly reliable vendor, Rolando and his family contribute to their community, including participating annually in the Amherst Foundation’s Cap City Kids events in Tampa.
“Main Street Renewal has impacted our business tremendously over these few years. Working with the superintendents and residents hand-in-hand has been such a great experience for us. We have grown so much and are so thankful to be able to work with a company that cares about their vendors so much.”
Rolando
Rolando’s HVAC

Birmingham,
 Alabama

2021

Year Founded

3

Years working with Main Street Renewal
Miranda’s Home Improvement is a woman-owned business that provides construction, remodeling, cleaning, and maintenance services to our homes. Since working with MSR, Miranda has grown her business and is one of the most widely used vendors for revitalizing our homes to ensure they maintain their quality between residents in Birmingham. Miranda’s Home Improvement is led by its company values—to lead, care, and grow as a company professionally and personally with compassion and integrity. Guided by their dedication to provide best-in-class home improvement services and help their employees excel, Miranda’s Home Improvement has had a tangible, positive impact on our residents and the Birmingham community.
“Main Street Renewal has set the foundation for Miranda’s Home Improvement by providing resources and support for new business owners. With this support, businesses such as my own have had an opportunity to excel in a thriving and competitive field.”
Miranda
Miranda’s Home Improvement
Learn more about our Vendors and Investment in Local Economies

Environmental
Responsibilities

Over the past five years, we have invested nearly $20 million in upgrading appliances to Energy Star appliances as part of our efforts to make our homes more sustainable during the preservation process. This investment has conserved nearly 35,000 mWH in energy and created nearly $5 million in cost savings for our residents on their utility bills.4

Amherst embeds sustainable environmental practices throughout its construction, maintenance, and development practices. This spans our initial investments in home renovations, turns of homes between leases, and development of new homes. Through our scaled platform, we invest in our homes for the long term, aiming to preserve their usability for decades to come. We pay close attention to the useful life of each element that goes into our homes, replacing materials as needed to ensure the quality of our homes for the long term. 

Climate and Environmental Risk Mitigation 
Amherst’s team analyzes climate risk on a market-by-market basis based on various geographical statistics. We take time to understand all the environmental and weather-related risks during our site-selection process and adapt each home to mitigate risks accordingly. For example, in homes located in storm-prone coastal areas, we install hurricane-safe windows and provide residents with instructions on how to safely navigate weather incidents. 
Materials Scorecard Vetting
Amherst’s proprietary materials scorecard-vetting process assesses new products sustainability, weighing environmental factors, market trends, and resident interactions to output relative scores. Based on these scores, our team puts sustainability into practice by selecting the highest-ranking products. This process was implemented in 2022, and we are pleased that the result has been several directive changes that have extended the life span of our home components. Utilizing the scorecard-vetting practice ensures our residents are benefitting from safe, sustainable, and durable products in their homes. 

Environmentally Conscious Home Components

We work to incorporate environmentally conscious components into our homes. As we seek to improve the homes on our platform, we choose eco-friendly materials and appliances that contribute to a more sustainable future. Inside many of our homes, you will find features that reduce environmental impact, such as: 
  • GE Energy Star-certified appliances

  • Lennox Energy Star-certified heating and air conditioning systems

  • WaterSense-certified Glacier Bay kitchen and bathroom faucets

  • GreenGuard Gold-certified Sherwin-Williams paint

  • FloorScore and GreenGuard-certified MSI Flooring

  • U.S.-produced carpeting (99% post-consumer recycled content)

  • CARB2-compliant and ESP-certified Skyline Cabinetry

  • Low-E American Standard double-hung windows

  • GreenGuard, LEED, and Kosher-certified quartz countertops
Learn more about our Environmental Responsibilities

The Amherst Foundation

The Amherst Foundation supports numerous initiatives in areas where we live and work, with a targeted focus on education initiatives, social services, cutting-edge medical research, 
and the health and welfare of our country’s military personnel.


Through the Amherst Foundation and its contributions, we 
strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people 
and communities in need.


The Amherst Foundation also provides an employee charitable giving matching program through which we amplify the charitable contributions Amherst employees make to qualified secular and apolitical nonprofit organizations with non-discriminatory missions. Through this program, we can have an impact on smaller, local community-based organizations that align with our employees’ values.

Over $240,000 in philanthropic grants to 30 nonprofits across the country in 2023.

Airbnb.org

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

ASPCA

Austin Pets Alive!

AustinAngels.com

Capital City Fund for Education Inc

Central Texas Food Bank

Civic Builders

Cornell University

Creative Action

Discovery Land Company Foundation

Feeding America

Fort Wayne Pitbull Coalition

Foster Angels of Central Texas

Herman Becker Elementary

Marathon Kids

Naperville Education Foundation

Navy SEAL Foundation Inc

The Safe Alliance

Thrive Funds

Our Little Ones

Project Schoolhouse

Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey

Rowing Cares

The Nobelity Project

Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Turkish Philanthropy Funds Inc

U.R. Our Hope

U.T. McCombs School of

Business

Valor South Austin

18,000+

Backpacks filled 
with supplies to help students start the school year right

Nearly 8,000

Essential hygiene kits for 
students experiencing 
homelessness or 
housing transition

Nearly 1,000

Gift cards distributed to unaccompanied youth

1,800+

Winter coats for students in need

50,000+

Hours of counseling provided by social 
work interns directly 
 to at-risk students
Learn more about The Amherst Foundation

Unlocking Access

Unlocking Access to

Housing Opportunities

Amherst expands access and housing choice for renters across the United States. Rentership serves millions of families in the U.S. housing economy. Over the past 50 years, approximately 30-40% of Americans have rented their homes. Today, about 34%6 of families rent their home, either by necessity or by choice.

Unlocking Access to

Housing Supply

Over a decade of underbuilding has led to a shortage of 4+ million homes in the United States. The lack of new single-family home construction over the past 20 years coupled with insufficient investment in home repairs has driven the nation’s housing stock into significant disrepair. Amherst’s investments in home preservation are pivotal to increasing the supply of livable and affordable homes across the country.

Unlocking Access to

Innovation

StudioBuilt™, founded by Amherst, is an innovative modular home building solution. StudioBuilt utilizes offsite construction to create new housing supply at scale, producing high-quality, new homes in communities of opportunity every year. This studio- based construction process enables the homes to be completed significantly faster than traditional onsite construction and is a more sustainable housing product.

Unlocking Access to

Communities
of Opportunity

Amherst has a strong record of converting vacant land into livable quality homes that offer long-term affordability for residents. Our platform invests in communities for the long-term allowing us to deliver compounding benefits to residents, neighbors and the community at large. Our presence helps combat vacancy, improve nearby property values, increase property tax revenue for the city, reduce crime, and increase housing supply in high-demand areas of the city.

Unlocking Access to a

Sustainable Future

Amherst embeds sustainable environmental practices throughout its construction, maintenance, and development practices. This spans our initial investments in home renovations, turns of homes between leases, and development of new homes. Through our scaled platform, we invest in our homes for the long term, aiming to preserve their usability for decades to come. We pay close attention to the useful life of each element that goes into our homes, replacing materials as needed to ensure the quality of our homes for the long term.

Unlocking Access to

Career Opportunities 

Amherst understands the value of ongoing education and provides constant learning and robust opportunities for career growth as part of our company fabric. We encourage team members to seek professional development opportunities throughout their careers while also working collaboratively to identify future talent.

Unlock Access to Amherst’s Impact

Download Full Report

[1] U.S. Census, Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey, August 2022

[2] 2021 1-year ACS PUMS on non-group homes among those who moved in within the past two years, FICO scores among mortgage originations from 2021-2023 eMBS; FICO score for SF renters internal MSR 2023; FICO for MF renters from Freddie Mac report, which includes both MF and SF renters

[3] As of January 2024

[4] Appliance data only includes upgrades made during initial renovation of a home after it is acquired, it does not upgrades made to appliances during a resident’s tenure; appliances included in data: fridges, dishwashers, and electric stoves, does not include upgrades to HVAC system; mWH and utility bill savings calculated using average power and cost savings of Energy Star appliances.

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