Partners for the Common Good (PCG) is pleased to announce our $35 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) award that is an allocation from the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). This award will allow PCG to finance community facilities such as charter schools and health care centers throughout the United States. These projects provide critical services to residents located in Severely Distressed communities.

The NMTC program drives flexible, below-market financing to projects located in low-income neighborhoods that might not otherwise proceed.

PCG will finance high impact community facility projects located in highly distressed communities. PCG will use the NMTC allocation to meet the borrower's needs by providing features such as flexible underwriting and low interest rate loans.

Jeannine Jacokes, PCG’s Chief Executive Officer attended the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) roundtable event that announced the 120 organizations nationwide that will receive a total of $7 billion in New Markets Tax Credit awards. Ms. Jacokes, who represented PCG and is the recipient of $35 million, was among the attendees which Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced the 2015-2016 awards.

To learn more about PCG’s New Market Tax Credit Program, contact Andrew Baldwin, Chief Lending and Credit Officer at baldwina@pcgloanfund.org or 2020.689.8935 x223

Partners for the Common Good (PCG) congratulates our very own Carla Mannings, Chief Program Development Officer, for her OFN 2016 Board Candidacy! As a prospective OFN Board Member, she brings over 20 years of banking and CDFI experience. At PCG, Carla serves in a leadership capacity for program and business development across our lending, CapNexus platform, and other program initiatives.

Prior to joining PCG, Carla served as a Relationship Manager for NeighborWorks America where she advised Executive leadership of non-profit organizations, including CDFIs, located throughout the Southeast region of the United States. Other positions include serving as a Commercial Real Estate Loan Officer for Community Housing Capital where Ms. Mannings worked closely with borrowers across the nation through loan origination, underwriting and providing project based technical assistance.

Carla would like to bring her national perspective with experience in building the field; working with all CDFI types – big and small, rural and urban, regulated and non-regulated; and she would like to serve as an active ambassador for OFN to understand, embrace, and effectively communicate to strategies to external allies and members.

If you are attending the 2016 Rethink OFN Conference in Atlanta, please come by PCG’s booth and attend the panel session CDFIs: Adjusting with the Changing Market Demands, which Carla is moderating.

Partners for the Common Good (PCG), is national CDFI participation lender where we partner with other CDFIs to provide capital to low-income people and communities. We are also the owner of CapNexus, a searchable, online database and networking tool that matches community development transactions to mission focused capital. PCG is recognized for managing the Community Development Bankers Association (CDBA), a national trade association of the community development bank sector which... Read more here.

Partners for the Common Good (PCG) and the Contact Fund have partnered on a new loan to the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco). The $500,000 loan will fund the construction of the Bronx Commons Apartments, a 293 unit mixed-income development which will house the Bronx Music Heritage Center and 50,000 square feet of retail and community facility space.

The Bronx Commons Apartments’ mixed-income units will be affordable to families earning between 50% and 80% of the area median income, with 88 units set aside for homeless families. The rooftop will feature a hydroponic green house and ground-level space to house the new Bronx Music Heritage Center.

“Bronx Commons will bring to fruition decades of resident advocacy. The Bronx Music Heritage Center—featuring a soundstage, recording studio, exhibits and archives—will educate young people about their vibrant neighborhood, attract visitors from around the world and incubate new sounds by a younger generation of musicians,” said Nancy Biberman, founder and president of WHEDco. Active since 1992, WHEDco provides over 30,000 people annually with affordable housing, early childhood education, family support and microenterprise incubation.

The development will help fill a niche for affordable housing in a neighborhood with a poverty rate of nearly 40%. Nearly 50% of tenants in the neighborhood are cost burdened by their rents.

PCG and the Contact Fund have each contributed a $250,000 investment to the project for a total loan of $500,000. The loan to WHEDco is PCG’s first housing loan in New York City. It is the first loan partnership between PCG and the Contact Fund.

“PCG loans have supported the construction and renovation of over 3,000 affordable units all across the country, but this is our first housing loan in New York City,” said PCG chief credit officer Kristin Faust. “Our partnership with Contact Fund has been vital because they are experienced lenders... Read more here.

Partners for the Common Good is proud to announce its 150^th community development loan to The Navajo Partnership for Housing. This $650,000 loan made with lending partner Community Housing Capital enables NPH to acquire and build 25 single-family homes near St. Michaels, Arizona, on land that is part of the Navajo National Reservation. This is an extremely rare opportunity as most land on the Reservation is in a deed restricted Tribal Trust. The Navajo Nation is willing to release 113 acres to NPH in the hopes of promoting homeownership and private land ownership in the area.

The Navajo Partnership for Housing began in 1996 and seeks to empower Navajo families with new knowledge, skills, and understanding to enable them to complete real estate transactions. NPH serves the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American tribe representing 225,000 members dispersed across 27,000 square miles of reservation and occupying three states. Through this program they have assisted over 480 families and generated $40 million in mortgage financing. They also offer a home buying education program that has been very successful, with 15,000 orientations completed to date. About 10 percent of the program's graduates are eligible to receive loans or grants for home financing.

These new homes will provide vital homeownership opportunities in a market that has historically lacked them. Before the 1990s no private bank had ever done mortgage lending within the Navajo Nation, as tribal law makes its real estate market unique and difficult to work with. The area also faces other hardships. Because potential jobs available on the reservation are limited, residents often must seek employment in nearby cities. In fact, between 25 and 43 percent of people on the reservation are unemployed; 40 percent of the families are below the federal poverty line, and the median income is below $20,000.

The land that will be... Read more here.