Director Andrew Zimmerman explains how and why targeting niche or overlooked market segments has defined IMPACT’s value proposition and its ability to finance more than 45,000 affordable residences.
While many investors use impact strategies to fulfill a desire to promote social good, we believe that affordable housing has built-in characteristics (along with the low correlation we’ve discussed in previous posts) that make affordable housing debt a source for stable, attractive, long-duration investment.
In our last blog, IMPACT presented analysis of the performance potential of affordable housing investments in the post-2008 era. In this follow-up blog post, we’ll examine another opportunity for institutional investors seeking entry into impact investing: The diversification attributes of affordable housing investments.
Nearly 20 years ago, IMPACT got its start financing affordable housing. But we knew that increasing the supply of quality, deeply affordable housing was not enough. We began thinking about how we might leverage our experience and investor base to create the other building blocks of communities.
In our previous entries, IMPACT CEO Jeff Brenner and I highlighted the vast need for affordable housing across the United States and offered examples of new affordable housing developments IMPACT has financed to help alleviate the shortage. These examples illustrate the role we play in bridging the gap between Wall Street and Main Street.
A couple of weeks back, IMPACT CEO Jeff Brenner shared his point-of-view on the crisis of a lack of affordable housing facing America’s communities. Today, I would like to share my perspective by highlighting two new developments, financed by IMPACT, that are good examples of our efforts to alleviate the shortage of affordable homes—a challenge impacting communities of every size across the nation.
I am fortunate to come to San Francisco to work every day. From the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, to the amazing food and the technological innovation, this city is a wonderful mash-up of diverse experiences. But, I am struck by the stark contrast of opportunity with the homelessness that I encounter as I move throughout the city during the day.
