The Habitat NYC Community Fund

Investing in New York’s affordable future

The Habitat NYC Community Fund is a critical piece of our Housing Preservation Program, providing those who need it most with access to affordable, small-scale financing. The Fund is a market-based, sustainable approach to supporting, preserving and creating affordable housing.

What is a CDFI?

A CDFI is a mission-driven financial institution that is dedicated to providing financial services to meet the needs of economically disadvantaged and underserved communities. By responsibly lending to individuals, not-for-profits, organizations and more, CDFIs create real impact where it is most needed. CDFIs can take many forms – a CDFI can be a bank, credit union, loan fund, microloan fund, or venture capital provider.

CDFIs are certified and regulated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and every CDFI is required to maintain accountability to the community it serves.

What does the Habitat NYC Community Fund do?

The Habitat NYC Community Fund supports low- to moderate-income New Yorkers by making loans to existing resident-owned multi-family affordable housing developments and nonprofit affordable housing developers.

A low cost, appropriately sized loan from the Community Fund allows housing developments to be affordable for many years to come. Lending to not-for-profit affordable housing developers, including Habitat for Humanity affiliates across New York State, gives them access to credit they need, but are unable to get through traditional capital markets, where small loans are unavailable or cost prohibitive.

The cost of not lending

New York City housing agencies estimate that more than two thousand affordable housing units are at risk of being lost through foreclosure or market-rate deregulation each year. Each unit that goes through a third party transfer or foreclosure process costs the City more than $120,000 of public funding.

By keeping these units affordable to low- to moderate-income families, the Habitat NYC Community Fund will not only ensure that the resident-owners have a stable place to live and equity in their homes, but it will keep the public from paying millions of dollars in direct costs for each lost units.

Investing in the Habitat NYC Community Fund

An investment in the Habitat NYC Community Fund is an investment in your community. Your socially responsible investment supports the people in our community that would otherwise have limited access to affordable capital.

Investments in the Community Fund may count toward CRA requirements or as a PRI Investment.

To discuss a potential partnership, please contact Dan Fielding at dfielding@habitatnycwc.org.

Partner with us

How can my organization borrow from the Community Fund?

The Habitat NYC Community Fund offers products for:

• Replacement or repair of building systems, rehab projects or major capital improvements
• Emergencies, including urgent financial and physical conditions
• Implementation of green building projects (solar panel installation, etc.)
• Consolidation of municipal arrears (including water, taxes, liens, fines, violations, etc.)
• Hard and soft costs related to rehab projects
• Pre-development costs (market studies, architecture, engineering soft costs, etc.) and construction costs for other not-for-profit developers throughout New York State

Depending on the product, the loans can be up to $500,000, short or long-term, and can be subordinated to senior lenders. To discuss a potential loan from the Habitat NYC Community Fund, please contact Steven Mao at smao@habitatnycwc.org.

If you are interested in homeownership, please visit our Home Purchase Program page.

Discuss a loan