Introducing the PhilaImpact Fund
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Reinvestment Fund and The Philadelphia Foundation are pleased to announce the launch of the PhilaImpact Fund, a new fixed-income product for impact investors who want to enhance the growth of the greater Philadelphia region.
The fund will raise $30 million to support clean energy, early and K-12 education, health centers, commercial real estate, access to healthy food, community facilities--and more--in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania; and Burlington and Camden counties in New Jersey.
In 2017 alone, Reinvestment Fund provided over $62 million in financing to projects in Greater Philadelphia that supported 300 early childhood education seats, over 4,000 K-12 seats, 96,000 patient visits, over 1,000 permanent FTE jobs, and 61 homes.
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HOW POLICYMAP IS MAKING PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA MORE USER FRIENDLY
In Meeting of the Minds, CEO Maggie McCullough describes how PolicyMap is making vast public data sets available, usable, up to date, and easier for the average person to access via the free version of our online mapping platform.
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$4.5 million award to support affordable housing
With a new, $4.5 million Capital Magnet Fund award, Reinvestment Fund will prioritize housing development that preserves affordability, particularly in gentrifying markets and where affordability restrictions are set to expire.
Atlanta is one such market where new, luxury development threatens long-term affordability in many neighborhoods. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Enterprise Community Partners have reported that the Atlanta region lost more than 5,000 low-cost rental units from 2010 to 2014 and that it is poised to lose tens of thousands more due to expiring subsidies.
Reinvestment Fund and Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) have partnered on two recent projects that are helping preserve affordable housing in the metro area.
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SCALING CAPITAL FOR IMPACT THROUGH FIXED INCOME INVESTMENTS
On the heels of S&P's affirmation of Reinvestment Fund's AA rating, CEO Don Hinkle Brown and Managing Director Andy Rachlin discussed how our $50 million public bond offering is helping us further our mission and expand the capital tools available for impact investment.
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New NMTC allocation to drive investment in community infrastructure, target rural areas
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The Emory & Henry College in rural Smyth County, VA, received $13 million of New Markets Tax Credits to create a new School of Health Sciences and expand the Mel Leaman Free Clinic.
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Reinvestment Fund was recently awarded $70 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
With this award, we will continue to invest in critical community infrastructure from quality education to health care and jobs. In total, Reinvestment Fund's NMTC investments have created over 3,700 FTE jobs, 150 housing units, more than 6,000 K-12 seats for low-income students, and over 100,000 additional patient visits at new or expanded community health centers.
Reinvestment Fund has also committed $15 million of our new allocation to non-metropolitan counties. Rural areas struggle to attract investment, including federal funding. To date, we have provided over $44 million of NMTC financing to health centers, business corridors, and healthy food access in low-income, rural areas.
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CHANGES IN THE SUPPLY OF AND DEMAND FOR CHILDCARE IN PHILADELPHIA
In the latest update to our analysis of the gaps in the availability of child care in Philadelphia, funded by the William Penn Foundation, we found that high-quality supply in the city continues to grow, while severe shortages persist in some neighborhoods. Read the full report.
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Investment in clean energy, efficiency, conservation
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Joe McGowan, Solar Sense
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Reinvestment Fund has launched a new Clean Energy Fund that will make investments intended to support energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies that otherwise have limited access to traditional capital markets. A subsidiary of MetLife, Inc., one of the world’s leading financial services companies, is the fund's first investor--providing $10 million in debt--in addition to a $2.5 million investment from Reinvestment Fund.
The Fund's first loan is allowing Affordable Community Energy Services Company (ACE) to perform comprehensive energy efficiency and water conservation projects for the nation’s largest nonprofit owner of low-income housing, Mercy Housing. The $6 million project is expected to improve the efficiency of 6,000 affordable housing units in 90 multifamily residential buildings in California.
“The Reinvestment Fund commitment becomes the springboard from which ACE can continue to fulfill its mission to help keep affordable housing affordable and the planet livable.”
- Jeff Greenberger, President of ACE
Mercy's anticipated cost savings from these retrofits would cover its repayment obligations, while also saving an estimated 2.1 million kWhs of electricity annually. Over 10 years, the project will save enough electricity to power almost 2,000 homes for a year.
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHAMPIONS OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA
Reinvestment Fund CEO Don Hinkle Brown was honored to receive the Philadelphia Business Journal's Economic Development Champion of Greater Philadelphia award at its annual Best Real Estate Deals celebration.
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New Redlining: Mortgage lending reinforces racial segregation in Philadelphia
At this 50th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, Reinvestment Fund's Ira Goldstein testified before Philadelphia City Council on fair housing and our findings on the racial disparities in access to home loans experienced by the city's minority residents. Although segregation in Philadelphia has improved, Brown University reports that Philadelphia is the nation's seventh most segregated big city. This underscores the importance of a vital and rigorously enforced Fair Housing Act.
Our analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data shows that the city's Black residents are three times as likely to be denied a conventional home mortgage than white residents, and that Hispanics are twice as likely to be denied.
Goldstein made a series of recommendations to Council as to what can be done to open up access to mortgages in underserved communities. These include actively listening to affected communities, exploring the impact of policy changes, reviewing what has worked in the past and ensuring "that Philadelphia's federal, state and local dollars ... are used to repair the vestiges and adverse consequences of segregation and discrimination in housing."
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INVEST HEALTH AT SXSW
Reinvestment Fund joined Invest Health teams from Grand Rapids and Flint, MI, at this year’s SXSW conference to talk about how cities can disrupt and tackle persistent health disparities. Watch the full panel discussion.
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