One Year, $300 Million Invested in Communities

I am proud to share news with you about LIIF’s strong fiscal year close. Investing $300 million is a high water mark for LIIF, and a testament to our organization’s lending expertise and strong market leadership and reputation. Beyond capital deployment, that figure represents 150,000 people served and 90 investments in leading edge, integrated projects across the country. Behind that number is a strong team and dedicated Board of Directors, committed funders and investors and, most importantly, our community development partners working in neighborhoods. It is also part of the legacy of my predecessor, Nancy Andrews, a true visionary in our field.

Now four months into this new role, I continue to be excited and humbled by the work of this organization and the community development sector more broadly. In today’s political and economic environment, the creative programs and projects LIIF finances underscore the case that all communities deserve our investment, particularly those that have not shared in the country’s economic gains. All the more reason that government and regulatory policy should tack toward this work, and not away from incentives supporting innovative financing which help low income families secure affordable housing, health care, education and access to transportation and jobs. The ability of LIIF and our CDFI peers to leverage public and private funds into distressed communities is needed now, more than ever.

While the capital deployment milestone is notable, our primary goal is to scale our impact. We must ask ourselves how effectively our investments address pressing issues like displacement and racial inequality, and create sustainable pathways for economic mobility LIIF will soon launch a strategic planning process and I am committed to asking these questions of my team, our colleagues and myself. You’ll hear more about this in the coming months, but I welcome your thoughts, ideas and questions. In the meantime, I hope you will join me in congratulating my 75 colleagues here at LIIF who worked so tirelessly to create these outsized results.

The ability of LIIF and our CDFI peers to leverage public and private funds into distressed communities is needed now, more than ever.

This year, LIIF has grown its impact through innovation, responding to community needs and pushing itself to explore new ground. Our early childhood education program expanded from California and New York to Washington, DC, where we are partnering with the Mayor’s Office to create 1,000 new quality child care slots.

LIIF also continued its capital innovation efforts, partnering with the public and private sector to launch several new initiatives aimed at addressing the pressing issue of displacement in regions across the country, including the Fund to Preserve Affordable Communities (FPAC), the Metro Affordable Transit Connection Housing (MATCH) program and the Bay Area Preservation Pilot (BAPP). We opened a fifth LIIF office in Atlanta, and have begun growing our geographic regional reach – preserving 76 affordable senior homes in rural Tennessee and creating more than 700 high-performing school slots and 64,000 square feet of health space in Louisiana.

2205 Mission St. – San Francisco
The redevelopment of a long abandoned, historic building into a mixed-use center for 46 affordable for-sale homes, an early care and education center and a permanent home for a local, 20-year-old dance company.

LIIF Investment: $5.65 million acquisition loan, $750,000 predevelopment loan
Partners: Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), Mission Neighborhood Center

KIPP Believe – New Orleans
KIPP Believe charter school is part of a larger Purpose Built Communities redevelopment of a public housing site into a vibrant community including mixed-income housing, child care and a health clinic. This new school will serve 818 students, 93% of whom receive free or reduced lunch.

LIIF Investment: $12.3 million New Market Tax Credit allocation
Partners: Capital One, Partners for the Common Good, KIPP New Orleans, Bayou District Foundation

Heritage Towers – Henderson, Tenn.
LIIF recently provided its first loan in Tennessee to Heritage Towers, a 76-unit affordable senior housing complex. This investment will fund repairs, improved accessibility extend affordability term for low-income seniors.

LIIF Investment: $3.4 million acquisition
Partners: ReBuild America, Inc.