September 22, 2021 (Oakland, CA/Arlington, VA) – There is a critical need to address the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing crisis in a market dominated by large global and national firms. In an effort to help solve this crisis, Capital Impact Partners announced the expansion of its EDI program into the region to help local, community-centric real estate developers take a leadership role in shaping the development landscape within the local context. These developers often face significant barriers to entering the real estate industry.
The program’s first cohort will provide approximately 20 emerging real estate developers with training, mentorship, and network building, as well as pathways to access the capital necessary to grow their businesses. This initiative is modeled after the successful program that Capital Impact launched in Detroit in 2018, and expanded into the Washington Metro area in 2019. Those two programs have trained 86 developers, many of whom have gone on to create their own organizations, build local developments, and foster peer-to-peer networks.
Tailored to the needs of local communities and markets, the program is designed to prepare emerging developers to pursue multifamily housing developments that are affordable to long-standing residents across Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, and Sonoma counties.
Participants will receive broad-based training, including project budgeting, real estate finance, project and contractor management, legal services, and community engagement, as well as local mentorship. In addition, Capital Impact is working to develop a loan product tailored to cohort graduates based on a loan product rolled out in Detroit and the Washington Metropolitan area.
“There is an incredible talent pool of developers who are well positioned to work with communities to create housing solutions that maintain affordability,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. “Helping these developers access capital, training, and networks will help them achieve their potential l. As we are doing in Detroit and the Washington Metro area, our EDI program will begin to build a community-centric real estate development ecosystem here in the Bay Area.”
Reflections from an EDI Graduate
Thomas Houston and Talayah Jackson, graduates of the 2019 EDI cohort in the D.C. area, went on to work with Capital Impact on the acquisition and development of a vacant lot in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 7. With nearly $1 million in financing through Capital Impact, they are working to develop a 17,000-square-foot building with affordable housing, retail, and office space.
“It is extremely important for programs like Capital Impact’s EDI program to exist. Are there universities that offer similar courses? Absolutely. But who can afford a $10,000 certificate course? When you look at networks, I didn’t know any developers. I didn’t know anybody who had a $20 million, 10-unit portfolio. And so there is nobody to teach me about development. I absolutely think programs like EDI will assist future developers in thinking differently about development,” said Houston.
A History of Supporting High-Impact Projects Throughout the Bay Area
Capital Impact opened its first regional office in Oakland in 1992. With more than $240 million in financing supporting 95 projects, the organization has become a mission-driven leader in increasing access to critical social services in communities and spurring economic development and wealth creation. This includes working with local partners focused on health care, education, healthy foods, affordable housing, and the ability for seniors to age in their communities with dignity.
One effort includes Capital Impact’s role in the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, a $500 million initiative launched by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, along with the San Francisco Foundation, Facebook, Ford Foundation, and LISC to address critical housing needs across the Bay Area.
As part of this effort, Capital Impact helps manage the Bay’s Future Fund and Community Housing Fund program. These unique funds provide flexible, nimble, and creative approaches that support affordable housing financing solutions. Both Funds are open to Non-Profit Housing Developers, mission-aligned For-Profit developers, or service providers partnered with either that operate in in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties.
One recent example of our regional lending includes nearly $5 million in financing to Allied Housing, Inc.. This financing is helping Allied Housing build a project in the City of Hayward to provide 125 units of affordable supportive housing. Our support helped to significantly increase their impact from the original plan of 46 units after a successful rezoning.
In another deal, Capital Impact provided a $1.3 million acquisition loan to HIP Housing to finance the $3.3 million purchase of a fully occupied, 10-unit apartment property in Redwood City. This project helps maintain affordability in a neighborhood where rent is more than twice the national median due to the proximity of local tech companies.
Capital Impact is also the largest nonprofit lender to Federally Qualified Health Centers across California. This includes several transactions with La Clínica de La Raza, a pillar of the community providing much needed medical care to residents since it opened in 1971. Under the leadership of Jane Garcia, who took the helm as CEO in 1982, La Clínica has grown from just four sites in Oakland to serving more than 91,000 patients at more than 35 locations in three Bay Area counties under a $120 million budget, and it continues to grow. Its residency programs with top medical and dental institutions like University of California, San Francisco; the University of California, San Francisco; UOP; and the University of California, Berkeley are training the future workforce, while giving La Clínica patients access to specialty care.
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About Capital Impact Partners
Capital Impact Partners, part of the Momentus Capital branded family of organizations, is transforming how capital and investments flow into communities to provide people with access to the capital and opportunities they deserve. As one of the nation’s leading mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), we help build strong communities and create generational wealth by deploying mission-driven financing, capacity-building programs, and impact investing opportunities.
Capital Impact Partners offers flexible financing for catalytic mission-aligned projects in four primary sectors: increasing access to health care, education, affordable housing, and healthy food.
In addition, we manage several multi-year initiatives in key regions to support emerging developers, small business owners, cooperatives, and community health enterprises through training, professional networks, access to experts and mentors, and pathways to grants and loan capital.
Capital Impact Partners has disbursed more than $3 billion since 1982 to create access to critical social services, grow entrepreneurs, and create quality jobs. Capital Impact Partners’ leadership in delivering financial and social impact has resulted in the organization being rated by S&P Global and Fitch Ratings and recognized by Aeris for its performance.
The Momentus Capital branded family of organizations refers to the combined operations of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance, as well as their affiliates, Momentus Direct Capital and Momentus Securities (an SEC-registered broker-dealer, MSRB-registered, FINRA/SIPC member). While each organization under the Momentus Capital brand still operates as a separate entity, their clients will now have access to more resources and products.
With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and San Diego, California, Momentus Capital operates nationally with a focus on larger urban areas and cities in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Texas, and the Washington D.C. metro area.
Learn more at capitalimpact.org and momentuscap.org.
