As the end of another year approaches, it’s a natural time for celebration—and reflection. LISC San Antonio hosted almost 80 of our friends and partners to do both, including recognizing our first LISC San Antonio Impact Leader award recipients: Iris Dimmick (Senior reporter, San Antonio Report), Patricia Mejia (Vice President of Community Engagement and Impact, San Antonio Area Foundation), and Mark Carmona (Chief Housing Officer, City of San Antonio). Our luncheon and program centered on giving thanks for all of our partners and acknowledging how, together, we make a positive impact in our community.
As the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, with almost 40 offices across the country, that’s our job—to lift up the people who are doing the work to make our aspirations a reality. LISC is all about partnering to create great places to live, learn, work, play, and raise a family. Nationally, LISC has been around since 1979, and we are one of the largest community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in the country. Our affiliate NEF is one of the leading investors in low-income housing tax credits and the New Markets Support Corporation just received a $40 million allocation of New Markets tax credits. Looking across all our activities, LISC invested $2.7 billion in community development across the country in 2021.
Locally, and as many of you know, LISC is celebrating six years since opening the local office in San Antonio and I am celebrating five years as the founding Executive Director. During that time, LISC San Antonio has made $54.5 million in loans, investments and grants, leveraging $136 million in community funds and supporting about 1,500 affordable homes & apartments as well as 166,989 sq. ft. of community and commercial space. Just this year, we have invested more than $2.5 million through affordable housing lending and nearly $600,000 in grants to local nonprofits.
And it could not be more accurate to say that we did this together! Other than our HUD funding and lending capital—which is certainly significant, and includes sources such as the Capital Magnet Fund that just delivered nearly $1 million in subsidy to a Merced Housing Texas project—our operating dollars are raised right here, through the generosity of the following funders:
Bank of America
Bexar County
Broadway Bank
Capital One
City of San Antonio
Crockett National Bank
Frost Bank
Jefferson Bank
JPMorgan Chase
Methodist Healthcare Ministries
PNC Bank
San Antonio Area Foundation
Simmons Bank
Truist
USAA
Wells Fargo
Our funders also contribute through allowing representatives to serve on our Local Advisory Council (LAC), along with others from the community representing education, research, economic development, and social services. And many of our funders are best described as collaborators—they have big ideas about transforming our systems, not just improving transactions—which draw us together in common pursuit of LISC San Antonio’s three primary goals. We seek to build assets for people of color to address past and continuing inequity and discrimination; capacity for all our partners to achieve their aspirations; and better systems so that we impact the root causes, not the symptoms, of the challenges our community faces.
Each of the individuals we recognized during our luncheon has also committed themselves to this idea that by understanding and addressing systemic challenges, which include things like how we do business, communicate, engage, and empower neighborhoods, we can impact outcomes and not just outputs. For example, it’s not just about the number of affordable units, although affordable housing is a critical ingredient in community development. It’s about whether parents have access to good-paying jobs, whether children enjoy high-quality, stable schooling, and whether individuals have the behavioral and physical health care and social supports they need to thrive. This integrated approach and the need for collaboration to achieve it was further detailed in opening and closing remarks by The Honorable Peter Sakai, incoming Judge of Bexar County Commissioner’s Court, and City of San Antonio Housing Commission Chair Shirley Gonzalez.
Looking back on five great years as the LISC San Antonio Executive Director, I am so proud of our team—Lori Hall, Program Officer; Sandra Fuentes, Program Officer; Emily Wood, Program Assistant—and grateful for the guidance of our LAC and past and current chairs The Honorable Henry Cisneros and Juan Solis of Truist. At the same time, I am humbled by the commitment, energy, and accomplishments of our friends and partners. In sum, I am truly thankful for the opportunity to tackle these big issues, together.