Reinvestment News Spring 2023: Creating an Equitable Future, Where All People Thrive
In our 2022 annual report, you will read about a year defined by action, and we are incredibly proud of the accomplishments and strides made by our organization. We invested $237 million in lending capital across 16 states, supporting equitable development projects. We are proud to share that we deployed 47% of our loan originations ($117.8 million)—representing 50% of closed loans—to BIPOC-owned or led organizations.
We brought together diverse stakeholders to foster a shared vision for addressing complex community challenges, such as inequitable access to food. Several of our grant programs, including the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), Fund for Quality (FFQ), and Invest Health, were awarded new grant funding to expand their initiatives.
We published research and data on racial bias in Philadelphia’s home appraisals and new forms of potential predatory lending emerging across multiple states. Our findings, along with our supply of evidence-based data tools, were cited in numerous media outlets and informed market-based policy interventions.
Reinvestment Fund is looking towards 2023 and beyond, focusing on mission, impact, and commitment to aligning strategy to support better those historically excluded by mainstream capital.
Boosting Developers of Color through the GDHD Initiative
Reinvestment Fund partnered with Capital Impact Partners, Low Income Investment Fund, and Raza Development Fund to lead the Growing Diverse Housing Developers (GDHD) initiative. The $40 million, four-year initiative funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation works with top U.S. housing development firms led by BIPOC owners to create racially equitable, affordable, and adequate housing solutions. The GDHD annual gathering is an opportunity for housing developers from across the country to share best practices, common challenges, and effective approaches in working toward their goal of housing equity and greater diversity in their industry. Program partners, funders, public officials, and other community members also participated in this program, which featured policy discussions, case study presentations, capital solutions, and tours of projects in development around Atlanta.
Following the event, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured one of Reinvestment Fund’s six program partners, Darion Dunn of Atlantica Properties. In discussing the program, Dunn stated, “These CDFIs are giving us that same access to capital that many very sophisticated institutional investors get, which is requesting of the lender specifically what you want.” Reinvestment Fund financing is supporting Atlantica Properties’ Forest Park townhome project, which will create affordable rentals for households that make up to 80% of the area median income. That means a family of four in the metro earning up to $77,000 per year is eligible for the new homes.
A New Pre-Kindergarten Playground for a Childcare Facility in Metro Atlanta, Georgia
Reinvestment Fund financing is helping construct a new pre-kindergarten playground for early learners enrolled in a childcare facility in the central Dekalb County community in metro Atlanta, Georgia. Nearly a century ago, Black philanthropist Tobie Grant and Scottdale resident Norma Gay Winchester created the Tobie Grant Housing Development. Grant and Winchester gained 40 acres of property to house unemployed Black people at the beginning of the 20th century. Decades later, at a community meeting, housing development residents voiced concerns about the need for a school for very young children; the result was the birth of Scottdale Early Learning, Inc. (SEL).
Since its founding in 1977, SEL has provided early education and parent training services to low-income, minority children ages six weeks to five years old. The currently enrolled children represent ten different countries and speak fifteen languages. The long-standing nonprofit organization conducts center-based and community-based early care and education services at two locations in Dekalb County.
In 2022, Reinvestment Fund financed a second loan that helped bridge a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant with DeKalb County to fund the second phase of renovations, which fully support the playground, a new roof, and other necessary repairs to their kitchen and other parts of their facility.
News & Resources
- Welcome to Reinvestment Fund’s new staff: LaToshia DeVose, Leah Rusenko, Brendan Buttimer, and Damien Wilson.
- Rhonda Smith, Executive Assistant to the CEO, was selected as a “2023 Philadelphia Admin Awards Good as Gold” finalist.
- Initial findings from Reinvestment Fund’s Market Value Analysis (MVA) of Chattanooga’s housing market were presented to the City’s Affordable Housing Committee.
- The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) awards Reinvestment Fund $3.7M for Equitable Recovery Program.
- Reema Fakih, Senior Director of New Markets Tax Credit, joined a panel of keynote speakers at CohnReznick LLP’s NMTC Summit to discuss big ideas and cutting-edge transactional activity within the community development space.
- The Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (PFJI) launched a new funding round for nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses, cooperatives, or collectives working on food justice in Philadelphia.
-
A new grant opportunity, The Early Learning Support Grant (ELSG), offers resources to Child Development Homes by giving access to flexible grant funding to support the care of children throughout Washington, D.C.
- The Healthy Homes and Communities Summit hosted by the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey included an update on the BHEC initiative presented by Jennifer Fassbender, Director of Program Initiatives—view recording.
- Atlanta Land Trust (ALT) broke ground at their new development site, The Trust at East Lake. Partner organizations, community development leaders, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined to celebrate this fresh approach to tackling the city’s affordable housing crisis.
- The Growing Diverse Housing Developers (GDHD) initiative was featured in a Black Enterprise article highlighting the annual GDHD convening and the initiative’s commitment to creating racially equitable affordable housing.
Work With Us
Latest Insights
Initial Evaluation of the City of Philadelphia’s Renters’ Access Act
The Renters’ Access Act (RAA) articulated what the City of Philadelphia defines as uniform tenant screening criteria, creates a right to dispute a landlord’s decision to decline an application from a prospective tenant, and right to a next available unit should the dispute produce evidence that the prospective tenant was a qualified applicant.