A cornerstone in affordable housing since 1987.
June 12, 2023
2022 was an exceptional year for NEF, despite having occurred during one of the most complex and challenging macro-economic cycles that many of us have ever seen. Elevated inflation, interest rate jumps, extended construction delays, continued longstanding economic effects of COVID and more, put pressure on investors, sponsors and the affordable housing industry like never before.
While managing these headwinds, NEF raised and deployed more than $2.1 billion in affordable housing investments, nearly matching our record production of $2.2 billion from the previous year. These results included over $1.2 billion in LIHTC investments and nearly $900 million in preservation lending and workforce housing investments to provide housing for the nation's "missing middle".
Our balanced approach to preservation lending in tandem with new builds and historic rehabs through LIHTC, continues to show our fierce determination to keeping families and individuals in safe, stable, and affordable homes for the long term. In total, NEF investments created and preserved 15,500 affordable homes in 2022.
All of this was done while we also made material investments that will transform the company over the next couple of years to increase the volume of business that we do, our profitability, and our reach to impact the industry and residents.
These investments included taking a major step to expand our ability to provide mission-driven capital to affordable housing developments through an ownership stake in the creation of CPC Mortgage Company, the only nonprofit lender with a suite of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) products to provide flexible Agency mortgage capital in communities where it is needed most. As a result, NEF is now able to extend the creation and preservation of affordable housing from the earliest days of pre-development lending through our LIHTC, debt, and equity lifecycles, even further to the addition of 30-year multi-family mortgages.
Read the full letter.
In 2022, we were able to bring our mission and vision to life in new ways while we continued to deliver strong performances across our production, financial, operational and mission-based outcomes at a scale that was record-breaking for National Equity Fund.
Please contact Alex Denja to request NEF financial documents.
SELECT A STATE FOR MORE INFO
While NEF continues to innovate and expand our capabilities, LIHTC remains our core service offering and in 2022, we delivered another strong year of growth, nearly matching our overall record performance in 2021.
In 2022, we invested over $1.2 billion in LIHTC, nearly matching 2021’s record LIHTC investment of $1.23 billion. We celebrated 35 years of commitment to leveraging State and Federal tax credits to advance affordable housing and nearly matched our record LIHTC production in 2021.
This was especially noteworthy considering that as an industry, we lost the advantage of the additional 12.5% of built in incentives tied to the 9% credit. And while we continue to wait for specific guidance on potential legislative reform, we are confident that LIHTC will remain a high-impact and socially responsible investment solution for the long term, so we are continuing to find new ways to increase our impact by leveraging our deep relationships and expertise.
Mamook Tokatee offers 55 units of affordable housing in Portland’s Cully neighborhood. The development’s name is a Chinook Wawa phrase for “make beautiful,” which highlights the main purpose for this development: to support Native artists who are revered as Native culture keepers. Community Development Partners and Native American Youth and Family Center combined efforts to provide ample space for Native community programs and art creation through Mamook Tokatee. There are 11 units with a preference for artists and 20 units reserved for Native tenants with a priority for Siletz tribal members. The remaining 24 units prioritize other federally recognized tribal members.
River Bend Place represents the first multifamily development in Southeast Oregon with onsite wraparound services, affordable housing specifically for individuals and families coming out of chronic homelessness, and the first-of-its-kind community hub for service partners and community organizations. Northwest Housing Alternatives (NHA) adaptively reused a 60-year-old former senior care center and transformed the narrow single and double bed resident/patient rooms into 56 studio, one- and two-bedroom affordable apartments. Ten units are reserved for persons with serious mental illness through the HUD-811 program. Units and supportive services also focus on residents who have suffered from chronic homelessness and live with HIV/AIDS.
Landmark Place is a senior and supportive campus in Kingston, NY and consists of the rehabilitated former Kingston Almshouse (Landmark West), which offers 34 studio apartments. The new construction (Landmark East) is a 4-story building with 32 one-bedroom apartments. All 66 apartments cater to seniors 55 and older and 35 units are reserved for formerly homeless seniors. This community was created by RUPCO to ensure that seniors in the community can live with dignity, empowering residents with supportive housing services and a sense of community that allows them to thrive.
Completed in Fall 2022, 1064 Mission Street is now San Francisco’s largest permanent supportive housing community. With 256 new affordable homes, residents can experience a service-enriched community in the middle of San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. Mercy Housing California (MHC) and Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco (ECS) worked together closely on the development of 1064 Mission Street to play a small, but vital part in the battle to end homelessness. The ground-floor space hosts the Maria X. Martinez Health Resource Center, accessible to residents and community members seeking counseling and support for any substance use, mental, and physical ailments.
Casa Durango is a 53-unit multi-family rental housing development in Chicago named after the Mexican State of Durango, where many residents of the Pilsen neighborhood came from. The two properties provide affordable apartments as well as a library/lounge, onsite parking, laundry facilities, bike storage, elevators, security system, and sensory-impaired units. In a prosperous, developing neighborhood affected by rising costs, gentrification, and lack of housing, many long-time Pilsen residents are at risk of being displaced; however, Casa Durango offers a safe, stable, place to live for many local families and individuals. Pilsen is a predominantly Latinx community and celebrates its cultural roots with The Resurrection Project acting as a steward of the neighborhood and its residents.
Avenue J is a new construction, 100-unit development in the heart of Houston's historic East End neighborhood. In a community undergoing rapid gentrification, Avenue J offers affordable homes to residents earning between 30 and 60 percent AMI. This is New Hope Housing's first development focusing specifically on low-income communities. Historically, the organization has focused on building permanent supportive housing complexes with supportive services for Houston's vulnerable populations.
For more than three decades, National Equity Fund has recognized the importance of providing affordable housing that includes consistent and critical onsite supportive services for our most vulnerable communities. As a long-established leader in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), NEF has worked strategically to integrate services that help improve the mental and physical wellbeing of residents, empowering them to live safe, healthy, and more independent lives. Together, with our trusted sponsor and investor partners, NEF moves the needle forward in combating the ever-evolving homelessness crisis.
“Across the country, National Equity Fund continues to work closely with state, county, and city agencies to help break the cycle of homelessness. We are constantly growing our relationships with funders and partners who have developed soft loan operating subsidies and service dollar programs to make permanent supportive housing accessible for those who need it most.”
- Debbie Burkart, Managing Director Supportive Housing
Built on the former land of the St. Francis House (SFH), Bertha Pitts Campbell Place is one of NEF’s outstanding developments that opened in 2022. Located in Seattle, Bertha Pitts Campbell Place brings 100 units of affordable, permanent supportive housing to adults exiting chronic homelessness. Plymouth Housing Group collaborated with SFH to develop a service-enriched community that supports residents through case management, transitional amenities, onsite nursing and health care, and more. The seven-story building also features street-level offices for St. Francis House and a commercial retail storefront.
Plymouth Housing raised more than $60 million during their PROOF Capital Campaign, a public fundraiser to help build the housing stock in and around Seattle. The funds allowed for the designing of for six buildings that would address the need for PSH, including Bertha Pitts Campbell Place.
The project is named in honor of Bertha Pitts Campbell, a civil leader and co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a historically Black sorority. In the 1930s, Campbell became an inaugural board member of the Seattle Urban League and fought for Black Americans in her area to have equal rights and privileges as well as access to financial support and affordable housing. She was also the first woman of African descent to serve on a YWCA board in the United States.
MAJOR FUNDERS: National Equity Fund, Capital One, St. Francis House, Plymouth Housing Group, City of Seattle, The State Trust Fund, The Federal Home Loan Bank
Situated in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) at West 108 is a new construction that brings 199 affordable apartments to New York City. Of that total, 119 are supportive housing apartments for the formerly homeless:
For WSFSSH, one of the biggest challenges is supporting the transition from homelessness to supportive housing for seniors. Through ample discussion and planning, the team strategically decided to create a co-location between permanent supportive housing and shelter space, offering opportunities for residents to transition from Valley Lodge, a 110-bed shelter for seniors that is run by WSFSSH, directly into permanent supportive housing at West 108.
Valley Lodge had previously been operated in a different building on the block but moving to the new residence joined with West 108 allowed the team to create a pathway and unique design, pooling resources and pioneering a method of creating sustainable permanent supportive housing. The co-location also enables social workers and building management staff to support and empower shelter clients, permanent supportive housing residents and low-income families alike.
Located in Tieton, Washington, a relatively isolated city in Yakima County, St. Catherine De Vigri Villas provides a safe space to call home for an often-overlooked community in our nation – farmworkers. The development brings 53 units of affordable housing on a five-acre parcel all dedicated to farmworkers and their families. All of the units are two-story townhomes except for three ADA fully accessible units, bringing an equitable housing option to farmworker households with disabilities.
Agricultural work is often low-pay and there is a significant number of Yakima Valley residents working in the industry who need affordable housing. Catholic Charities Housing Services (CCHS) wanted to provide a voice to farmworkers and inspire a community that has seen much dismay and economic destruction over the last several years. In addition to providing housing to farmworkers and their families, CCHS also provides a pioneering method in its provision of tailored services to meet the needs of the community. Services are centered on five areas of focus or initiatives: education, health/nutrition, community engagement, crime prevention and economic opportunities.
The development, named after the patron saint of the arts, is a nod to CCHS’s collaboration with Tieton Arts and Humanities, a nonprofit that creates and implements artistic and cultural programming in the city, as well as local artists who helped in the development of well-rounded, culturally sensitive public art that contributes to a unified feeling of belonging, inclusivity and community.
Located in Berkely, California, Jordan Court is a collaborative development by All Souls Episcopal Parish (ASEP) and Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA). The development provides 37 affordable homes for low-income seniors and formerly homeless seniors who suffer from mental illness. Residents have access to onsite amenities including a community room, a courtyard with seating adjacent to the laundry room and upper floor terraces and lounges. Additionally, ASEP has administrative and residential spaces within the building, adding a strong sense of community and service to the atmosphere.
The Brigadier General Hazel Johnson-Brown Veterans Center at HELP Philadelphia VI was once a school and now offers 55 affordable homes for seniors and homeless veterans in Philadelphia. Named in honor of the first Black female brigadier general in the U.S. Army and developed by HELP Development Corp., the rehabilitation of this Art Deco building ensured accessibility for low-income veterans, seniors, and individuals with special needs to age in place with dignity, especially with on-site medical services provided by Public Health Management Corp.
The Resurrection Project’s (TRP) large-scale Casa Veracruz preservation project—encompassing 15 apartment buildings with 155 units and scattered across three communities—has provided quality and long-term affordability for over 500 families. The buildings, known collectively as Casa Veracruz Apartments, are in the Pilsen, Little Village and Back of the Yards neighborhoods of Chicago. The units range from studios to four-bedrooms and were built or rehabbed between 1997 and the late 2000s to provide low- and moderate-income housing. Residents have access to TRP’s in-house services, including educational programs, workforce readiness and multiple healthcare and childcare centers.
As our capabilities expand, National Equity Fund continues to pave the way in terms of innovation through collaboration. As leading syndicator, asset manager and pioneer in affordable housing, we work to evolve our approach to creating and preserving affordable housing for those who need it most.
"It’s become clear that as an industry, we can't build ourselves out of the housing crisis, which is why NEF has partnered with developers like BRIDGE Housing that are focusing on preserving affordable housing units in danger of becoming market rate. This is a new direction for many high-profile developers that have previously only built new construction, and we are proud to be working to ensure there is safe, stable, and affordable housing for years to come."
- Daryl Shore, Head of Structured Finance
In 2022, we expanded our ability to provide mission-driven capital to affordable housing developments through innovative partnerships including:
Predevelopment Lending continues to be a critical piece of early financing to assist our partners in development. It covers the costs for tasks that need to be completed before construction closing and can cover a variety of development expenses, from professional fees to acquisition.
Workforce Housing allows us to provide housing for the nation’s “missing middle,” or those who fall within 60-120 percent of the Area Median Income. Together, these two capabilities accounted for $75 million of our 2022 production. A few examples of our impressive workforce housing developments:
45 units of workforce housing located in the Chicago suburb of Lisle.
65 units of workforce housing located in Cincinnati.
View MorePreservation Lending is a critical aspect of affordable housing and an important component of our mission. Working with investors to create flexible and efficient products focused on providing bridge financing equity needed to assist our partners with the acquisition and minor recapitalization of projects to maintain long-term affordability for residents. In 2022, our team invested more than $804 million in preservation lending.
322 units of affordable housing located in Columbia, South Carolina.
316 units of affordable housing with 48 units reserved for eligible homeless tenants in need of emergency shelter located in Staten Island.
View MoreNEF’s affiliate, NEF Housing Charities, Inc., has established the Pay it Forward (PIF) program to augment NEF and partner equity investments in developers of color by providing participating developers with a flexible and patient capital bridge to tax credit applications and awards in the form of recoverable grants and application assistance loans. These grants are up to $50,000 and the loans are up to $250,000.
PIF is made possible by donations from NEF, U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Brunswick Corporation and JPMorgan Chase. To date, NEF’s efforts to assist developers of color with capital for early pre-development expenses prior to LIHTC application have raised $2 million.
View More45 units of workforce housing located in the Chicago suburb of Lisle.
65 units of workforce housing located in Cincinnati.
322 units of affordable housing located in Columbia, South Carolina.
316 units of affordable housing with 48 units reserved for eligible homeless tenants in need of emergency shelter located in Staten Island.
In 2022, we focused on investing in the people who help make us one of the top places to work for in the nation. We were honored, for the second year in a row, to be recognized as one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in Chicago and in the nation.
"We are proud of the continued progress NEF has made to ensure that we are an organization that lives our mission to support communities in need and empower our own employees.”
- Jaclyn Jackson, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer
On June 21, we celebrated our 35th anniversary with our Summer Solstice Soiree in Chicago that included a Race for a Cause teambuilding event in which groups of our staff raced around the streets of Chicago to shop for much-needed items for Volunteers of America Illinois, one of our local sponsors. We were also pleased to be able to welcome more employees back to the office and continue to ramp up our efforts as we have seen the benefits of continued networking, collaboration, and engagement, especially after three long years of COVID isolation.
We were pleased to bring together another talented group of college age NEF Ambassadors this summer, while continuing to work with high school interns from Cristo Rey year-round. We also recently welcomed our second established career Fellow through a sponsorship with Open Access, an organization that provides Black and LatinX fellows training, mentorship, and education to help develop future projects in a more equitable and inclusive way.
In 2022, we filled 31 job openings – 39 external hires and 2 promotions – with 45 percent of the new hires self-identifying as BIPOC. We also released our unique Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement (below) to reinforce our commitment to building a diverse workforce to ensure our employees can thrive today, tomorrow, and in the future.
National Equity Fund strives to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive place to work so that our team has the experience and knowledge to effectively support the individuals, families, and communities we serve. We are committed to bridging the gap between people and communities across the country by embracing differences, learning from the unique experiences of our partners, residents, and employees and taking a leadership role to create a more inclusive world where everyone has access to a safe, stable and affordable home.
As a nonprofit and one of the largest syndicators in creating and preserving affordable housing, we acknowledge and embrace our responsibility to inspire, build and lead by example, and actively seek to employ and partner with those who have similar values in mission and vision. We are not afraid to speak openly and directly to the hard truths about the inherent legacy of discrimination built into our industry while taking deliberate and progressive steps to provide a more equitable and inclusive future for the next generations. We stand up and stand firm to give an opportunity to the nation’s most vulnerable populations and remain committed to doing what is right internally and externally to help people thrive today, tomorrow, and in the future.
