NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Community Housing Capital and Calvert Impact Capital announced today the closing of a $15 million credit facility that will supply flexible, unsecured debt for investment in affordable housing real estate transactions. Calvert Impact Capital structured the facility through its new syndication services.

This source of flexible capital can be deployed as a supplement to the secured lending that Community Housing Capital provides to the non-profit affordable housing developers in the NeighborWorks® network.

“One of our challenges is matching available capital with the complex financing needs of our borrowers,” said David Landis, Chief Operating Officer for Community Housing Capital. “This facility will augment our work with predevelopment, scattered-site single family, and other projects that are not exclusively backed by real estate collateral,” he said. “It’s a smart way to address the critical lack of funding for affordable housing across the country.”

Calvert Impact Capital is acting as the lead arranger for the facility, leveraging its track record to attract qualified investors to help Community Housing Capital execute its work more effectively. The loan syndication model is rare in impact investing, where organizations seeking capital are usually on their own in the search for investors—an expensive and time-consuming process for any non-profit organization.

“We have had a long-term, successful relationship with Community Housing Capital and this investment continues our support of its mission to create and preserve affordable housing,” said Lucas Pappas, Director of Investments for Calvert Impact Capital. “We are excited to bring new qualified investors into the impact investing space and connect them more directly with strong mission-driven organizations like Community Housing Capital.”

Photo courtesy of dany13.