By Matt Josephs, Senior Vice President of Policy

LISC’s Matt Josephs reflects on this year’s State of the Union speech, taking particular note of the president’s comments about affordable housing, child care, climate solutions and community safety. "Taken as a whole, the speech offered a strong and hopeful statement of purpose,” Josephs said, adding that it will take sustained leadership at all levels "to translate promising ideas into on-the-ground progress for families and communities.”

In a new blog, LISC’s Matt Josephs connects the dots from community development policy discussions to actual funding streams, highlighting positive local outcomes that would not otherwise move forward. "It would be nearly impossible to unlock the tens of billions of dollars of private financing needed each year to scale up progress without strong federal support,” he writes. "We are grateful for the confidence federal agencies have shown in LISC and others in the community development finance field…"

By Matt Josephs, LISC Senior Vice President for Policy

Strong public policies have always been critical to promoting affordable housing, economic development, health, and jobs. The urgency surrounding these issues remains ever-present. LISC SVP for Policy Matt Josephs zeroes in on the goals of LISC’s federal policy agenda in a blog highlighting proposals that tackle gaps in health, wealth and opportunity affecting millions of families and their communities.

By Matt Josephs, LISC Senior Vice President, Policy

Matt Josephs, LISC senior vice president for policy, offers his take on the president's State of the Union address and how it connects to key efforts to expand economic opportunity throughout the country. “Whether we are investing in affordable housing, child care centers, recreational facilities or small businesses, the idea of breaking down barriers to opportunity is a constant.”

By Matt Josephs & Michael Skrebutenas

LISC is pressing Congress and state housing officials to address the troubling effects of QCs, which reduce the amount of rental housing that is available to families with low incomes. " As a country, we can’t afford to let that continue,” write LISC’s Matt Josephs and Michael Skrebutenas, in a new commentary on the issue. "We can’t afford to subsidize affordable housing development for public good only to watch it slip away for private windfall."

By Matt Josephs and Michelle Harati

As Congress looks to reauthorize the Economic Development Administration (EDA) for the first time since 2004, LISC’s Matt Josephs and Michelle Harati take a look at new bipartisan legislation that offers a place-based approach to expand equitable access to EDA resources.

By Matt Josephs, Senior Vice President for Policy

Matt Josephs, LISC senior vice president for policy, takes a look at the president’s State of the Union address and what it might mean for efforts to bridge gaps in health, wealth and opportunity throughout the country.

By Matt Josephs, Senior Vice President for Policy

The Build Back Better Act is a sweeping package of investments to support underserved people and communities. LISC’s Matt Josephs takes a closer look at this historic opportunity for Congress to break down systemic barriers for people of color, while at the same time fueling an equitable economic recovery from the pandemic.

LISC hosted a policy conversation this week to discuss initiatives that are critical to the well-being of families and communities, especially as the country begins to emerge from the pandemic. Practitioners and policy leaders weighed in on the ways that federal programs fuel robust community investing and underpin efforts to close persistent gaps in health, wealth and opportunity throughout the country.