Local impact investing initiative surpasses $5 million goal, aims for $10 million by year’s end
Press Release – WASHINGTON – Local residents, foundations, businesses, and banks are making investments to help end the housing crisis in the Greater Washington, D.C. region through Our Region, Your Investment. For most of them, it is their first impact investment.
Since the local impact investing initiative was launched in January, local residents and businesses have invested $7 million through the Enterprise Community Impact Note to support the preservation of affordable homes—protecting more than 200 families from potential displacement at Fort Stevens Place in Washington, D.C., Clarendon Court in Arlington, Virginia, and the Crest Apartments in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
The Impact Note enables individuals and organizations to invest in creating equitable communities with access to quality affordable homes connected to good schools, jobs, and transit and health-care services—earning both a financial and social return.
Regionally, more than 150,000 families are in need of an affordable home and that number is expected to double in less than 10 years. Finding and maintaining an affordable home is by far the dominant stressor for low-income families in the District, and when workers cannot find an affordable place to live, it is a threat to the region’s economic competitiveness and sustainability.
“Our Region, Your Investment is a natural fit for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) because we see this as another important tool for our work on affordable housing,” said Chuck Bean, COG’s executive director. “The COG board enthusiastically embraced the idea and appreciated the chance to become an institutional investor. It’s increasingly clear that government on its own cannot solve this issue and we hope more businesses, nonprofit organizations and even individuals – my wife and I also invested – will join COG and invest in this important initiative.”
Our Region, Your Investment has brought together local investors such as the COG, TD Bank, the Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation and the Richard E. and Nancy P. Marriott Foundation.
“TD Bank is pleased to help fulfill the critical need of providing more affordable housing in the region,” said Hugh Franklin, vice president of TD Bank. “As the human bank, we seek to make a positive impact in our communities by investing in projects such as these.”
“The Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation is working to address the deficit in housing affordability in the D.C. area,” said foundation president Joshua Bernstein. “An investment in the Enterprise Community Impact Note aligns our investment strategy with our mission and leverages our impact. We are grateful for the opportunity that Our Region, Your Investment has created to invest funds in ways that promote additional investment in housing solutions.”
Our Region, Your Investment provides an actionable step for impact investors to address the region’s housing crisis and an opportunity to generate critically needed, additional funds to address the shortage of affordable homes from a broad range of community members and businesses. The initiative surpassed its goal to raise $5 million this year, now aims to reach $10 million by the end of the year and will continue to raise investment capital into 2017. To learn more about Our Region, Your Investment visit www.ImpactNote.org or send an e-mail to ImpactNote@enterprisecommunity.org.
About Enterprise Community Loan Fund
For more than 20 years, Enterprise Community Loan Fund has strategically invested more than $1.4 billion in communities lacking access to traditional sources of capital. Enterprise Community Loan Fund is one of the nation’s largest U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). As part of the Enterprise Community Partners family, Enterprise Community Loan Fund works to deliver the critical financing needed to ensure that everyone has access to affordable homes connected to jobs, transit, quality schools, and health care.
About the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers
WRAG is a membership association comprised of grantmakers in the Greater Washington region – Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland, and the District of Columbia. WRAG provides a variety of services to its members to facilitate more effective, strategic, and efficient grantmaking, thereby making the region a better place to live and work. Working alongside its membership, local stakeholders, and regional leaders, WRAG has been leading regional efforts to identify the affordable housing need and address the crisis.
Disclosure: The Enterprise Community Impact Note is offered by Enterprise Community Loan Fund, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. It is guaranteed by Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. The Enterprise Community Impact Note is not FDIC or SIPC insured and is only available in states where authorized. This brochure is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities. The offering is made only by the prospectus, which can only be delivered by eligible employees of Enterprise Community Loan Fund, and should be read before investing. WRAG is not affiliated with Enterprise Community Loan Fund, Inc. or Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. WRAG is not offering to sell nor soliciting an offer to buy these securities. WRAG is not providing advice, receiving compensation, or making any suitability determinations in respect to you.
