2018 Year in Review

Dear Partners,

We are pleased to provide this Year in Review highlighting LISC NYC's programmatic achievements in 2018.

New York City's community development sector is constantly developing and changing, and LISC NYC continues to adapt with it. It was a year in which we celebrated longstanding partners like Hope Community and Fifth Avenue Commitee, and welcomed new partners in both housing (Community League of the Heights) and economic development (Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation). We completed the first cycle of new initiatives like the New York Land Opportunity Program (NYLOP) and the Commercial Corridor Challenge, and launched new innovations such as NYLOP 2.0, the NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund, and planning for a community health partnership.

All the while we continued to support our partners to create and preserve spaces -- both residential and commercial -- that allow low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to live, work, and contribute to the cultural fabric of the city. We closed $28 million in loans, supporting over $280 milion investment in afordable housing and equitable economic development projects. Our lending and technical assistance resulted in 1,398 units of affordable housing and 145,000 square feet of affordable space for the inclusive creative economy. Our partners at the National Equity Fund closed on $104 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity, financing an additional 477 units of affordable housing.

Please join me in celebrating the work of LISC NYC's dedicated staff and partners in making a more equitable and inclusive New York City. Here's to making 2019 even more impactful...!

Sincerely,

Sam Marks, Executive Director, LISC NYC

Affordable Housing

Financing & Technical Assistance

• ​​We closed on a predevelopment loan for Fifth Avenue Committee’s Sunset Park Library, a joint venture with the Brooklyn Public Library combining affordable housing with a new state-of-the-art library.
• We advised NYC HPD on the design of the Neighborhood Pillars Program, a new resource to assist nonprofits to acquire and preserve privately owned rent stabilized buildings as affordable housing.
• We closed on a $7.5 million construction to permanent loan on Community League of the Heights’ Essie Jeffries three-building RAD conversion.

Economic Development & Community Spaces

New Initiatives & Projects

• We launched our NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund, raised from impact investors to fund loans to nonprofit developers who are creating or preserving affordable space for artists, artisans, and manufacturers.
• Closed on $7M in financing of Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation’s Building 127 Project, an adaptive reuse of a former Sweet n Low factory to create an advanced manufacturing hub that generates middle skill jobs.
• We were selected for a second round of Citi Foundation's Community Progress Makers Awards, providing critical investment in our equitable economic development work.

Healthy Neighborhoods

Commitment to Health Equity

• We released our Communities for Healthy Food Toolkit, a resource for community-based organizations developing healthy food access programs, based on learnings from our partners.
• We hosted a convening on links between community development and the social determinants of health with NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, NYC HPD, OneCityHealth, the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, and our community-based partners.

Events & Tours

Lifting Up the Field

Throughout 2018, LISC NYC created opportunities to highlight the critical community development work taking place in neighborhoods across New York City, beginning with our annual Big Apple Innovation Awards in January, a tour of South Bronx projects supported with HUD Section 4 capacity building funds with HUD Regional Administrator Lynne Patton in February, and a summer tour of IMPACCT Brooklyn projects as part of our Cashin Fellowship Program. Two of our 2018 Cashin Fellows wrote a blog post about their reflections on community development.