Loans: Housing and Shelter

Founded by Los Angeles residents and affordable housing advocates in 2019, Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre Land Trust (FCTL) purchases vacant land and properties to place into community control. By bringing neighbors together through workshops and convenings, FCTL also builds collective voice and power. As they secure affordable housing opportunities, FCTL increases access to stable housing for low-income residents in Los Angeles’ rapidly gentrifying East Side.

Founded in 1979 by Japanese American activists, Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) provides social services and community development services in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo Historic District and neighboring Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. LTSC serves about 10,000 clients in Southern California annually through counseling, case management, senior services, and more – with many of their clients identifying as low-income.

In December 2020, FCTL entered a partnership with LTSC to create 700 Simmons LLC – and together, they acquired an 11-unit apartment building. In the Los Angeles housing market, there are simply not enough resources to support community land trusts that work tirelessly to secure affordable housing. This loan will address a funding gap exacerbated by rising property costs and operating expenses. Financed through NFF’s CARE Fund, which offers 0% interest loans to community-centered nonprofits led by people of color, this loan will supply some of the funding needed for repairs and renovations to the building. With support from this loan, 700 Simmons LLC will be able to improve the lives of tenants by providing a better quality of living while keeping units affordable so that the tenants can remain in their community.

The Center at Blessed Sacrament (The Center)'s mission is to be an organization devoted to healing and centered on individual wellness and community, to advocate for those in Hollywood without shelter, and to develop and implement solutions that lead to resilience and housing. Its housing programs alone serve more than 400 people each year; count its wellness and outreach programs, and that number swells to 2,000 people. From rapid and recovery housing to art classes to community "coffee hours” with people living on the street, The Center's programs build community in Hollywood for housed and unhoused people alike.

The Center depends on contracts with government agencies for a large portion of its funding. However, agencies typically pay those contracts after nonprofits conduct their programs, not in advance. In addition, the Center's primary funders have delayed paying their contracts due in part to COVID-19 and in part to internal transitions at those agencies. Bridge financing like this loan fills these gaps by ensuring that organizations like The Center have enough cash on hand to pay their staff, keep the lights on, and offer their essential programs. With support from this financing, The Center can continue offering hundreds of homeless Angelenos the housing and wraparound services they depend on to achieve their aspirations.

The mission of New York State Tenants and Neighbors (Tenants & Neighbors) is to organize a unified coalition of tenant organizations that educates tenants, builds community support, and strengthens tenant rights across New York State. With gentrification rapidly displacing residents in low- and moderate-income communities across the nation, the need for grassroots tenant organizing grows more important every day. By providing education and leadership development sessions, Tenants & Neighbors equips tenants with the resources necessary to advocate for affordable housing. Throughout its nearly 50-year history, Tenants & Neighbors has worked to ensure that its clients have access to the support they need to thrive. In 2021, Tenants & Neighbors served nearly 2,000 clients, 97% of whom qualified as low-income.

Tenants & Neighbors depends on contracts with government agencies for a portion of its funding. Government payments to nonprofits are often delayed; however, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these delays. Supported by the Trinity Church Wall Street Grantee Loan Fund, this loan will make sure that Tenants & Neighbors has consistent access to working capital for its essential programs while it waits for that funding to arrive. Smoothing over this cash flow issue will help the organization maintain and grow programs that help tenants build economically just neighborhoods and futures.

Since 2017, Sustainable Futures Project has operated shelters that provide safe housing for dozens of unhoused families in South Los Angeles. When they don’t have stable shelter, families experience barriers to accessing other critical supports like employment, mental health care, and legal services. Together with close partner Special Services for Groups, Sustainable Futures Project helps families overcome these barriers and move from survival to stability.

Sustainable Futures Project is looking to operate more wraparound services and plans to open childcare and Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) programs. This loan will provide Sustainable Futures Project with some of the cash they need to rent and redesign facilities and hire staff to run these programs. At the same time, Sustainable Futures Project is working with NFF consultants to budget for these new programs – and track their actual spending against their planned budget. As they grow, Sustainable Futures Project will be able to provide more comprehensive services to families who wouldn’t otherwise have stable places to live.

PATH Ventures is a permanent supportive housing (PSH) provider that specializes in the development of housing for formerly homeless individuals and families. Their mission is to end homelessness for individuals, families and communities by building and operating affordable rental homes paired with on-site services that support residents in regaining long-term stability, independence, and health. They currently operate 16 PSH properties with 985 units of housing – including California’s first ever development through Project Homekey, a state-funded effort to convert unused hotel space into PSH.

Affordable and permanent supportive housing developers like PATH Ventures often struggle to access the flexible capital they need to develop housing at the scale required to curb the United States’ homelessness and housing affordability crises. NFF’s Accelerating Permanent Supportive Housing Fund responds to this by providing $10 million in unrestricted capital for nonprofit developers in the Los Angeles area – developers like PATH Ventures. Offered through this fund, this loan provides flexible capital that PATH Ventures can use to support the LA area projects in pipeline – projects that will house more than 1,000 people in a region where affordable housing remains in short supply. Stable, secure places to live will help these people overcome their immediate challenges and work towards achieving their long-term goals.

Since 1971, Bayview Hunters Point Foundation (BHPF) has offered affordable housing, employment assistance, healthcare, and educational programming to people experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco neighborhood of Bayview. The organization provides a continuum of homeless services ranging from outreach to case management to permanent housing support. Their goal is to help people access the support they need to transition from homelessness to permanent housing and to achieve their aspirations: medical treatment, rehabilitation, stable, supportive housing, benefits, and employment.

The organization has experienced increased demand for its services since the onset of COVID-19: it served approximately 12,000 people last year and is preparing for continued growth. BHPF relies on contracts with the City and County of San Francisco for much of its revenue. However, these contracts are paid after BHPF offers services instead of before, creating cash flow challenges for the organization that only increased with rising demand. Offered through NFF's zero-interest CARE Fund, this loan will bridge those delayed payments, helping the organization focus on stability while allowing it to scale its programs to more people who need them. As the organization grows, it will help thousands more people move from homelessness to stable housing and support their long-term goals.

Impact Services’ mission is to empower people in need to attain the hope, motivation, and skills necessary to reach their fullest human potential and highest level of personal and family self-sufficiency. The Philadelphia neighborhoods where Impact Services works have been highly impacted by the overlapping traumas of multi-generational poverty, opioid addiction and the heroin trade, and a high level of violence. In response to these issues, Impact Services offers employment assistance, reclaims abandoned industrial spaces, develops affordable housing, and works to stabilize the lives of individuals and families. The organization's specific programs include workforce and community development programming for a range of low-income and disenfranchised populations, a loan fund that supports local businesses, and community engagement efforts that organize neighborhood events, clean-ups, and more.

NFF’s loan will support a phased redevelopment of Impact Services’ historic campus, which will be financed with a mix of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits, grants, and loans. The resulting campus will include an existing 57-bed shelter for veterans who are experiencing homelessness, a multi-purpose community gym facility, 47 units of affordable housing, program space for Impact Services, and several floors of commercial space for office or community purposes. With this redevelopment, Impact Services will be able to expand its programs to even more Philadelphia residents, giving many people the support they need to overcome obstacles and achieve their aspirations.

The mission of The WIN Project is to reinvest in neighborhoods by providing families with access to decent, safe, and affordable housing. Since 1999, The WIN Project has built strong partnerships, particularly with the City of Compton, and has developed more than 20 projects of low-income or affordable housing, securing low-cost homes for the individuals and families most likely to be affected by rising housing prices in the Los Angeles area. Financed by NFF’s zero-interest CARE Fund, this loan will support predevelopment costs – such as architecture, engineering, and pre-construction management services – for a new affordable housing development in Compton, California. This development will offer five Compton families places to live in an area where low-cost housing is desperately needed.

The mission of Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) is to restore hope and dignity by offering opportunities for health and self-sufficiency to vulnerable New Yorkers. BRC serves more than 10,000 individuals each year through dozens of programs spanning outreach to unsheltered New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, transitional housing and shelter, permanent housing, substance abuse treatment, mental and physical health services, workforce development, and senior services. NFF’s loan will facilitate BRC's development of a 120-bed shelter in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan that will support unhoused men with mental illnesses through a person-centered, clinically sound model. This new residence will provide safe, emergency shelter and assist clients as they transition into more independent, permanent housing.

Partners: Citi Community Capital, Leviticus Fund

Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services (RNHS) provides affordable rental housing and services to support first-time homebuyers, focusing on low-income Black women in and around Richmond and Oakland, CA. Founded by a dedicated group of residents who believe that affordable housing shouldn’t stop at renting, RNHS has worked to reverse systemic segregation, redlining, disinvestment, and blight. In partnership with local residents, businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies, RNHS offers low-income households and people of color the tools they need to achieve financial equity.

RNHS has received a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in support of its efforts to develop and rehabilitate affordable homes across the East Bay. However, without access to debt, the organization would need to divert money from their development pipeline to maintaining their existing properties, slowing the rate at which they could build or rehab new ones. Financed through NFF’s CARE Fund, which offers 0% interest loans to community-centered nonprofits led by people of color, this loan will ensure that RNHS has sufficient cash flow to both continue its existing services and develop new affordable homes for Bay Area families.