Stories
NEF’s Debbie Burkart Ranks High in the Affordable Housing World
Affordable Housing Finance profiled 10 women who’ve shaped the industry, including NEF’s Debbie Burkart. The piece highlights her work on behalf of homeless veterans and her leadership of Bring Them HOMES. Says Burkart, “It has been important to me, someone who has benefited from a safety net, to build one for others who have not.”
Lessons from Indianapolis, via Podcast
LISC Indy director Bill Taft talks financing community development and his vision for Great Places 2020—an initiative to revive six historic neighborhoods by the city’s bicentennial—in an interview with Aaron Renn, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Taft also shares his key strategies for people who want to help improve quality of life in their own communities.
Better Housing & Healthcare for Immigrant Communities
Two of the most important factors for a healthy community is a good home and good health. Simple ideas but not always simple to bring together, especially in low-income neighborhood like the East Side of St. Paul, which serves up to eight immigrant populations. A new case study in Build Healthy Places Network of the Rolling Hills Apartments, where LISC invested $9.6 million, shows how it gets done.
Creative financing makes for rural renewal
Getting investors and lenders to take on ventures in low-income rural places can be a tough sell. But stagnant economies in our heartland can’t rebound without innovative support. In an article for ABA Banking Journal, Suzanne Anarde, director of Rural LISC, shows how even modest investment can have major impact. Creative financing helped to adapt a former houseboat builder into a manufacturer of prefab homes in Kentucky, and an old department store was converted to affordable apartments and health clinic in Michigan. These and similar projects across the country reap great returns for investors and communities alike.