Goldman Sachs Announces Fund for Black-Led Affordable Housing Developers
It will focus on providing capital to Black-led affordable housing developers, as part of Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative.
Goldman Sachs is taking steps to remove barriers to access to capital for black developers as part of its One Million Black Women initiative.
The Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced that it closed a $75 million investment with the National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT) to establish the Black Developers Initiative Affordable Housing Fund, which will finance high-quality affordable housing across the country sponsored by Black-led developers, with a focus on Black women developers.
The goal of the Black Developer Capital Initiative, launched in partnership with Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) in 2021, is to create more equitable access to capital for Black affordable housing developers. Through the Fund, NAHT will provide Black developers with greater access to Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investment capital and support to developers throughout the development process.
NAHT will work directly with Black developers to secure market equity at market terms with an emphasis on backing the growth of these partners.
Black developers often cite barriers to access to capital as a key obstacle to business growth; this initiative responds to that call for change. The fund will invest alongside developers who are representative and reflective of the communities that Goldman Sachs, NAHT, and LIIF serve. The initiative also features a line of credit from LIIF that will provide early capital that supports developers in the planning and design stage of a project.
“This fund is a key step in our commitment to ensuring there is equitable access to impact market-rate capital for Black developers as they work to address our nation’s affordable housing crisis,” Lori Little, CEO of NAHT, said in prepared remarks.
First Investment Made in Rome, Ga.
The fund’s first investment will be South Meadows, based in Rome, Ga., where funds will be deployed to finance the new construction of an 80-unit multi-family residential development as well as an on-site 3,000-square-foot educational facility and one-acre community farm.
This project will be developed by Laurel Street, a Charlotte-based real estate development firm founded 10 years ago by President and CEO Dionne Nelson, who has over 25 years of experience in real estate development and financial services. The development firm will also receive debt capital through the initiative from LIIF.