In April, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the US Treasury Department’s largest community development financial institution grant program in history, providing $1.7 billion dollars in capital to strengthen the ability of CDFIs to help low- and moderate-income communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in long-term prosperity.

The Habitat NYC Community Fund (Community Fund), a market-based, sustainable approach to supporting, preserving and creating affordable housing across New York State, is proud to be among the grant recipients.

“This $500,000 grant from the Equitable Recovery Program is the most significant in our history and will play an invaluable role in our ability to help more New Yorkers experience the wealth, health, and education benefits of an affordable home which are so vital to the long-term prosperity of families and communities,” said Karen Haycox, president, Habitat NYC Community Fund.

COVID hit New York’s communities of color the hardest.

As of November 19, 2020, Latinx and Black New Yorkers had died from COVID-19 at twice the rate of White New Yorkers, a painful fact that spotlights the structural racism inherent in health care, and historical disinvestment in neighborhoods where New Yorkers experiencing multiple, intersecting forms of racism and discrimination reside.

These neighborhoods are at the center of the work of the Community Fund. Most borrowers are co-ops, resident-owned multi-family affordable housing developments, and nonprofit affordable housing developers across New York State. Community Fund loan products offer access to low-cost capital which is often unattainable through traditional capital markets. They also offer solutions to a myriad of challenges including delayed building system repairs or replacement, municipal arrears, or getting new projects underway with pre-development loans. Whatever the situation, our borrowers trust us to provide technical expertise, and flexible, low-cost financing, to keep their projects on track.

The CDFI Fund’s Equitable Recovery Program grant puts the Community Fund in an even stronger position to continue and grow our support for borrowers and investors who share our vision of building a more equitable, just New York.

Visit https://habitatnycwc.org/communityfund/ to learn more about borrowing from or investing with the Community Fund.