Renewal should create more than new buildings. It should help people remain rooted in their communities, strengthen local relationships, and expand access to safer homes and better opportunities. The idea behind social urban renewal Israel is that physical development and community development must move forward together, with residents treated not as an obstacle to renewal but as essential partners in shaping it.
This people-centered approach is especially important in Israel’s periphery, where communities may face a combination of aging housing, limited investment, lower land values, and gaps in access to services or economic opportunities. These neighborhoods are not defined only by their challenges. They are also places of family life, local leadership, cultural identity, and valuable community knowledge.
For international donors and impact-focused investors, social urban renewal offers a practical way to support change across several connected areas: affordable housing, household stability, resident leadership, employment, public spaces, and community resilience. MANOF brings these elements together through long-term work in neighborhoods where conventional real-estate development is often not financially viable.
Social urban renewal is an integrated process that improves the physical, economic, and social conditions of a neighborhood. It does not treat housing as separate from household income, public services, community trust, or residents’ ability to influence decisions about their future.
MANOF’s approach works across three interconnected areas:
Renewal of residential buildings, including affordable housing
Individual and community support delivered through a neighborhood social program
Improvement of public spaces and community facilities
Readers can explore this structure in greater detail on MANOF’s social urban renewal model.
MANOF describes itself as a nonprofit real-estate developer working in neighborhoods ranked 1–3 on Israel’s national socioeconomic index. These areas are also characterized by land values that do not create sufficient market conditions for conventional urban renewal.
The organization commits to working in each neighborhood over a period of 10–15 years. Its financing approach brings together philanthropy, impact investment, public funding, and private capital.
This long-term commitment matters because construction is only one part of renewal. Residents may also need help accessing benefits, improving employment, managing debt, organizing local leadership, and navigating a complex planning process. Physical and social interventions are therefore designed to reinforce one another.
“Israel’s periphery” may refer to communities that are geographically distant from the country’s main economic centers, socially underserved, or both. The term should be used respectfully. It does not suggest that these areas lack strengths or potential. It recognizes that residents may face structural barriers and lower levels of sustained investment.
Traditional urban renewal usually depends on financial feasibility. In areas with high property values, the sale of additional apartments may cover the costs of planning, demolition, construction, temporary accommodation, and development. In lower-value neighborhoods, that financial equation may not work, even where the need for safer housing and improved infrastructure is clear.
MANOF focuses on this gap. Its model is intended for neighborhoods where social need is high but conventional market-led renewal is difficult to initiate.
The Atikot project in Ashkelon shows what this integrated approach can look like. According to the project page, the plan includes 96 existing housing units and 436 planned new units. A neighborhood social task force was established in 2023, and the project is currently advancing through resident representation, agreements, and detailed statutory planning.
Alongside planning, the neighborhood team supports residents with access to rights, debt arrangements, employment advancement, community participation, and resilience.
The Kibbutz Galuyot project in Ofakim similarly combines housing and neighborhood planning. Its published plan includes 134 existing units and 690 planned units, as well as renewed public areas, an elementary school, an innovation complex, and a network of shaded pathways. A social task force accompanies residents from the planning stage through future occupancy.
For donors, these examples demonstrate why patient, early-stage support is important. Community engagement, planning, professional guidance, social services, and coalition-building all begin long before construction.
Renewal can increase the value and attractiveness of a neighborhood. This may create new opportunities, but it can also increase housing pressure, particularly for renters and lower-income households.
Without an affordability strategy, people who lived through years of underinvestment may find it difficult to remain in the neighborhood once it improves. Affordable housing is therefore an important mechanism for protecting community continuity.
Depending on the verified structure of a project, affordable housing may include designated affordable rental units, public housing, below-market options, long-term affordability commitments, or other arrangements that help households remain in the community.
MANOF states that affordable housing is incorporated into its renewal model. Project-specific publications should clarify the number of affordable homes, eligibility criteria, form of tenure, and period during which affordability will be protected.
For donors and impact investors, affordability should be measured rather than assumed. Relevant indicators may include:
Affordable homes created or preserved
The proportion of existing residents able to return
Housing costs relative to household income
Tenancy and residential stability
Accessibility for older residents and people with disabilities
The length of affordability protections
Recent OECD analysis also emphasizes that affordable, good-quality housing supports economic stability, social inclusion, and access to opportunity. It recommends connecting housing policy with infrastructure, services, and place-based interventions rather than addressing each issue separately.
The objective is not to prevent neighborhoods from evolving. It is to make sure that improvement creates a stronger, more inclusive community rather than displacing the people who helped build it.
Resident participation is meaningful when people can influence decisions before those decisions are final. It requires more than a public meeting, an information brochure, or a request for signatures.
A trustworthy process provides clear information, accessible communication, ongoing representation, and visible evidence that resident input has affected the project.
MANOF’s published approach includes neighborhood committees, elected resident representation, community events, and immediate physical improvements carried out with residents. Examples may include upgrading stairwells or shelters, addressing safety hazards, developing community gardens, and advancing neighborhood priorities.
Participation should reflect the full diversity of the neighborhood, including:
Homeowners and renters
Public-housing residents
Older adults and young families
New and veteran immigrants
People with disabilities
Residents who may not usually attend formal meetings
Information may need to be translated, repeated, and communicated through several channels. Residents should also understand which decisions are open to influence, which are limited by legal or planning requirements, and how long different stages may take.
For donors, participation is both a guiding value and a measurable outcome. Funders can ask:
How many residents were reached?
Did participation reflect the neighborhood’s diversity?
How early were residents involved?
What decisions could residents influence?
How did resident input change the plan?
Did local leadership continue to develop?
International urban-regeneration guidance similarly stresses that sustainable renewal requires continuous, meaningful, and inclusive community engagement.
Social urban renewal requires different forms of capital at different stages.
Philanthropic funding can support community professionals, resident outreach, early planning, access-to-rights programs, employment support, public-space initiatives, and impact measurement. Impact investment may support planning and pre-development when there is a verified financial model, clear risk profile, and defined repayment pathway.
A responsible funding approach connects each contribution to a clear theory of change. Donors should understand what their funding enables, which milestones are expected, what is within the organization’s control, and what depends on municipalities, planning institutions, or future financing.
MANOF reports that its organization-wide impact in 2024–2025 included:
Increased income for residents through benefits access
Increased income through improved employment
4,600 participants in 96 community events
3,000 housing units in statutory planning
146 active residents participating in seven advocacy committees
The exact financial totals, methodology, reporting periods, and attribution should be reviewed in MANOF’s 2025 Annual Report before being quoted in external donor materials.
Strong impact reporting distinguishes between outputs and outcomes.
Outputs may include households contacted, services delivered, meetings held, or plans submitted.
Outcomes may include higher household income, improved employment, greater housing stability, stronger resident leadership, or progress toward renewed housing and public spaces.
Urban renewal is a long process, so transparency also matters. Responsible reporting should explain delays, risks, lessons learned, and the difference between an immediate social result, a planning milestone, and a long-term expected benefit.
No single organization can deliver social urban renewal alone.
Municipalities bring local knowledge and public responsibility. Residents understand the neighborhood’s lived reality. Social organizations contribute community-development expertise. Planning and real-estate professionals provide technical capacity. Donors, businesses, and impact investors contribute capital, networks, and specialist knowledge.
MANOF works through collaborations with local authorities, government bodies, social organizations, professional service providers, philanthropic foundations, and private-sector partners. Its partners page presents the wider network supporting this work.
Responsible partnership requires more than placing several logos on a project. Each partner should have:
A clearly defined role
Agreed responsibilities and decision rights
Appropriate financial and professional oversight
Transparent reporting expectations
A shared commitment to resident-centered outcomes
Residents must remain central to the process rather than being treated only as beneficiaries.
When these elements are aligned, partnerships can address immediate needs while advancing long-term change. They can help families access benefits today, develop local leadership, move housing plans forward, improve public spaces, and create financing structures for communities that the market would otherwise overlook.
International supporters can begin by learning more about MANOF’s mission and current projects and opening a focused conversation about where their resources or expertise can create the greatest value.
Support long-term, resident-centered renewal in communities where patient capital can help advance planning, affordable housing, and measurable social impact.
Donate to MANOF through jGive.
Explore how your expertise, resources, local capacity, or funding could contribute to a responsible partnership.
Contact MANOF to explore a partnership.
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Social urban renewal in Israel combines the physical renewal of housing and public spaces with social programs, resident participation, and long-term community development. The goal is to strengthen existing residents as well as the built environment.
MANOF works in neighborhoods with significant social needs and low land values, where conventional market-led urban renewal is often not financially viable. Its model combines community work, planning, affordable housing, and blended financing to help advance renewal.
Affordable housing can help residents remain connected to a neighborhood as it improves, while resident participation gives local people a meaningful role in shaping plans and priorities. Together, they support continuity, trust, and more inclusive outcomes.
They can examine verified indicators such as households supported, increased income, employment progress, resident participation, affordable housing commitments, planning milestones, housing stability, and improvements to public spaces. Results should include clear timeframes, methodologies, and limitations.
