An article in the latest issue of the well-respected Stanford Social Innovation Review includes Lift to Rise and its We Lift housing catalyst fund among examples of innovative organizations and partnerships that are part of an emerging and overdue paradigm shift in community development finance.
“A New Blueprint for Financing Community Development,” by David Fukuzawa, Nancy Andrews, and Rebecca Steinitz, proposes a new paradigm for community development that prioritizes impact over scale, emphasizes flexible and creative financing strategies, and empowers community voice.
“We Lift, Coachella Valley’s Housing Catalyst Fund, offers a compelling model for how to shift the power balance in community development,” the authors write. “Today, Coachella Valley’s nascent housing market is responding to residents’ primary needs and is well on its way to vitality. Since 2017, 2,007 new housing units have been built, and another 5,700 are in the pipeline. The Housing Catalyst Fund has deployed more than $35 million to support these projects.”
We Lift: The Coachella Valley’s Housing Catalyst Fund, grew from the Center for Community Investment’s Connect Capital initiative. The fund is a critical tool in Lift to Rise’s work to build 10,000 new affordable homes in the Coachella Valley by 2028. It is managed through a collaboration between Lift to Rise and partners Riverside County, Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), and the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF).
With more than $44 million in capitalization from local government, state, and private funders, the catalyst fund provides low-interest loans to developers working on affordable housing in the Coachella Valley. As loans are repaid, the money is returned to the fund and used to support more projects.