Community Development Financial Institutions have emerged as the “ultimate impact investment,” able to effectively tackle some of our most pressing challenges: the affordable housing crisis; the climate emergency; and persistent racial health, wealth, and opportunity gaps. That’s according to CDFIs and the Capital Markets: Trends in Investment & Impact Measurement, the third white paper in a series from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and the first in collaboration with Enterprise Community Partners.

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration announced a set of actions intended to address racial bias in the home appraisal process. The announcement followed a two-year effort led by the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE), an inaugural task force comprised of 13 federal agencies and offices directed to evaluate the causes, extent, and consequences of appraisal bias, as well as establish recommendations to eliminate racial and ethnic bias from the home valuation process. The task force found that the legacies of past racist housing policies, along with industry practices that reinforce negative perceptions of neighborhoods with high concentrations of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color contributed to the under-valuation of homes in majority-BIPOC neighborhoods and the loss of billions of dollars in wealth for their owners.

Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P) has upgraded its issuer credit rating for the Enterprise Community Loan Fund (ECLF)—the community development financial institution (CDFI) of Enterprise—and its long-term rating on ECLF’s series 2018 taxable sustainability bonds from “A+” to “AA-.”

The California Legislature has passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed critical affordable housing legislation from streamlining development to unlocking local resources to strengthening tenant protections.

Our Northern California and Southern California teams have participated in conferences across the state, exploring the challenges in affordable housing.

Jacqueline Waggoner reflects on her three years leading Enterprise's Solutions division

In his first six weeks on the job, Shaun Donovan has visited 11 cities, met with dozens of partners and investors, and toured affordable housing properties across the country. The recent travels drove home the breadth and depth of Enterprise's work, mission, and partnerships. But as the organization's new CEO and president, Donovan believes Enterprise must expand its network to tackle the full scope of the country's affordable housing crisis.