Financing
LISC offers project financing to CDCs
in both the predevelopment and construction phase of projects. LISC utilizes
grants, recoverable grants, loans and lines of credit as financing vehicles. For
pre-development, LISC provides working capital grants and low interest loans to
CDCs to pay for architectural work, environmental reports, options on property,
and early-start construction loans needed to initiate development projects. This
funding is often the “venture capital” that enables the project to develop to a
stage where it can attract other investment. During construction, LISC offers
low cost bridge financing and construction loans to support the development of
rental housing and homeownership.
In Connecticut, LISC utilizes
primarily the following financing programs:
Connecticut Neighborhood Investment Fund -
Capitalized by a loan from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, this
$5 million fund provides short-term 4% financing for housing and community
development projects in
Connecticut communities served by
LISC. To date, this loan has supported $4.9 million of investment in 668 units
of housing worth over $105 million.
Through its national affiliate, the
National Equity Fund (NEF), LISC has
access to a pool of equity investment to support Federal Low-Income Housing Tax
Credit developments. NEF raises equity contributions from corporate investors
and then provides the capital to non-profit developers to support
community-based affordable housing development. To date, NEF has invested over
$35 million in
Connecticut projects resulting in
the development of over 600 units of housing.
LISC also provides capacity-building grants to selected CDCs to assist them in expanding their scale of development and in serving more of Connecticut’s neighborhoods. With funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Connecticut Statewide LISC program has been able to provide $420,000 of grants to Connecticut CDCs to support additional staff and consulting services that will expand development capacity. These new resources have enabled them to identify new development opportunities and to accelerate their production of housing.