LISC Awards $875,000 for Affordable Housing Development

PROVIDENCE – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Rhode Island announced a total of $875,000 in grant awards to nine Rhode Island-based Community Development Corporations to support their efforts to create and preserve low to moderate income affordable housing in Rhode Island. These awards are made from LISC Rhode Island’s Neighborhood Development Fund, an annual grant program that provides unrestricted operating and program support for community-based non-profits focused on affordable housing development.  

Including this award, LISC’s Neighborhood Development Fund has delivered a total of $14.2 million to community development corporations in Rhode Island. The program’s primary focus is to increase the ability of the state’s CDCs to produce affordable housing through funding, compliance oversight and specialized technical assistance and problem solving, as a way to help CDCs address broader community revitalization issues.

“We’re lucky in Rhode Island to have this program,” said Jeanne Cola, Senior Executive Director of LISC Rhode Island. “Not only does it provide a mechanism to bring new Federal dollars to our State to support our front-line CDC partners, but it also provides the opportunity to work with CDCs to navigate challenging demands and regulatory hurdles. We are able to bring these critical funds to Rhode Island as a result of local funders providing the match requirement for the federal funding.” 

Each year, LISC, along with two other national non-profit Community Development Financial Institutions, receives an allocation of HUD Section 4 funds that are intended to support CDCs and community housing development organizations to carry out community development and affordable housing activities that benefit low-income and underserved communities. The federal program requires local entities raise match funding on a 3:1 ratio. LISC Rhode Island works with local funders including Santander, the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island Housing, BankNewport, Washington Trust and others to satisfy the match requirement to access these federal funds.

The nine CDCs receiving funding this year include: Amos House, Church Community Housing Corporation, NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, One Neighborhood Builders, Pawtucket Central Falls Development Corporation, Sojourner House, Stop Wasting Abandoned Properties (SWAP), Valley Affordable Housing, and Women’s Development Corporation.

“LISC provides crucial operating support. Without it, CDCs in Rhode Island wouldn’t be able to do what they do,” says Sue Bodington, member of the board of directors of Church Community Housing and former Deputy Director for Programs at Rhode Island Housing. “It is not easy work and it’s hard to find the funding to support this work. 

“For many years, Church Community Housing has been the primary provider of affordable homes in Newport County, which has some of the highest housing costs in the state. Without their work, housing would be out of reach for many of the people who work here and the local economy would suffer. Businesses rely on the very people who can’t afford to live here,” says Bodington.

In addition to funding operating costs, NDF provides resources for professional development training, back-office improvements including computer and systems upgrades, and technical assistance to help CDCs strengthen internal capacity. 

“The Professional Development Series fills an important need for the successful operations of Rhode Island CDCs,” said Jay O’Grady, who is a Senior Program Officer at LISC and manager of the NDF program. “The work performed by our partners is critical to the economic growth and sustainability of our communities, and this is one way we work with them to ensure they have the necessary skills to excel. This year, we are hosting a panel to explore the process of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit syndication from the syndicator perspective. This tool is a critical funding mechanism for deed-restricted projects, and it’s a complex instrument.”

LISC Rhode Island -- Together with residents, partners, and local leaders, LISC Rhode Island forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across our state – great places to live, work, visit, do business, and raise families. Our strategies – investing in real estate, increasing family income & wealth, stimulating economic development, improving access to quality education, and supporting healthy environments and lifestyles – work together to improve the health and well-being of our neighbors. LISC has invested $591.5 million in neighborhoods across our state, helping to create more than 10,580 affordable homes and support the development of more than 2.2 million square feet of commercial, child care, educational, and community space.  We are committed to building strong neighborhoods and healthy communities where individuals, businesses and families can thrive.