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 Hartford, LISC primarily utilizes the following financing programs:
- LAND Program
- Connecticut Neighborhood Investment Fund
- Hartford Community Capital Partnership
- National Equity Fund
- Capacity Building
LAND Program (Land Acquisition for Neighborhood Development) - provides loans as low as 1% for the acquisition, predevelopment, and construction of CDC sponsored affordable housing in Hartford. This program is capitalized with $1 million from the City of Hartford's Municipal Employees' Retirement Fund, and is believed to be the first in the nation to use public pension funds to support housing development by CDCs. Through the LAND Program LISC has made $4.4 million of loans from the initial $1 million investment, supporting production of 680 housing units and leveraging over $90 million of development.
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.
For selected projects, LISC also has access to a special $1 million pool of funds established by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. The Hartford Community Capital Partnership provides grant and loan funds to LISC to support projects of scale and impact. Particular attention is given to those projects with innovative approaches that may be replicated by other groups. These projects are underwritten by LISC and approved by both LISC and the Hartford Foundation. LISC has now utilized $454,000 of funding through this partnership.
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 Hartford area 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 neighborhoods of Hartford. With funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, through National LISC, the Hartford program has been able to provide more than $1.2 Million of grants to Hartford CDCs to support additional staff and consulting services. These new resources have enabled them to identify new development opportunities and to accelerate their production of housing.