Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)
Good News, Bad News: Federal Policy
Jonathan Harwitz, Director of Federal Policy
June 4, 2015
Background on LIIF
• 30-year history
• Bridge capital markets to lowincome communities
• $1.7 billion invested, 1.7 million
people served
•
$250 million invested in NYC in
participation with HPD
• $45 billion in family and societal
benefits
• Approximately $200 million in
annual lending
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LIIF’s Geographic Footprint
LIIF’s Investments (historical)
LIIF’s Investments (recent)
PIP Grantees
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Impact Pathways
POLICY
HOUSING
CHILD CARE
EDUCATION
HEALTH
TOD
STORIES OF SUCCESS
3
LIIF Deploys Public and Private Sector
Capital to Support Community
Development Innovation
• Capital at scale: revolving loan fund, New Markets
Tax Credits, Collaborative for Healthy Communities
• Flexible capital: Capital Magnet Fund, Healthy
Food Financing Initiative, Department of Ed
• Patient capital: CDFI Bond Guaranty
• Innovative capital: Equity with a Twist
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Working to “Flip the Script” in the Federal
Policy Debate Over the Safety Net:
rejuvenating the old, testing the new
Dramatizing unmet needs within the housing finance system in
new and compelling ways,
affordable rental housing
• complementing Out of Reach, Priced Out, and Paycheck-toPaycheck/Housing Landscape
• Urban Institute: “Mapping America’s Rental Housing Crisis”
• National Housing Conference: Solutions for Housing Communications
• Enterprise Community Partners: “Make Room”
access to homeownership
• recognizing the importance of homeownership to wealth creation in a
post-financial crisis system
• engaging the question of how to ‘rebalance’ federal housing subsidies
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Working to “Flip the Script” in the Federal
Policy Debate Over the Safety Net:
rejuvenating the old, testing the new (cont.)
• while simultaneously building on a foundational narrative of
success both nationally…
• demonstrating impact of safety net programs on the poverty rate (e.g.,
CBPP What Works to Reduce Poverty series)
• publicizing the recipe for moving the needle on chronic and veterans
homeless (not ‘more with less or the same,’ ‘more with more, data-driven
and better targeted’)
• showing how housing/community development and other investments
coupled with cross-sector collaborations are transforming neighborhoods
(e.g., NRI/Choice/Promise, Investing in What Works– “community
quarterback” concept/Partners in Progress
• exploring and marketing new metrics to document the full impact of
housing/community development investments on household income,
health and achievement (e.g., LIIF Social Impact Calculator) in both the
short and long run (e.g., Chetty MTO analysis)
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Working to “Flip the Script” in the Federal
Policy Debate Over the Safety Net:
rejuvenating the old, testing the new (cont.)
• and in states and cities that are stepping up to the plate.
• San Francisco
• Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing (TOAH) Fund
• universal pre-school
• California
• ‘cap and trade’ funding source for affordable rental housing near
transit
• New York City
• UPK
• affordable housing plan
• New York State
• UPK
• proposed FY 2015-2016 budget
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Social Impact Calculator
• Impact by proxy
approach
• 10 metrics across LIIF
program areas
• Free, open source tool
on LIIF website
liifund.org/calculator
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Social Impact Calculator
Monetized Social Value Tracked
• Housing: income boosts, health improvements
• Early childhood education: health
improvements, individual and societal benefits
• K-12 education: income boosts, societal benefits
• Health centers: health improvements, medical
cost savings
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