Funding helps local affordable housing developers preserve affordable housing

DENVER — Mercy Loan Fund, a subsidiary of Mercy Housing Inc., announced today that it has received a $1,500,000 financial assistance award from the United States Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. The funds will help MLF provide approximately $8 million of leveraged financing to affordable housing developers working in low-income and distressed communities.

Mercy Loan Fund was one of 152 organizations selected from a pool of 427 applicants to receive allocations totaling $160.8 million by the CDFI Fund.  

“With the help of the CDFI Fund award, MLF will help close the affordable housing financing gap for developers who cannot access bank financing on affordable terms that facilitate the preservation of affordable housing,” said Julie Gould, Mercy Loan Fund President. “With bank lending still constrained, CDFI assistance is more important than ever for maintaining and increasing the supply of affordable housing in distressed local markets.”

Mercy Loan Fund will apply its CDFI Fund award to some of the most distressed areas of the United States in partnership with affordable housing developers who serve these communities in need. Short term, below-market financing from MLF will help developers preserve affordable rentals that are at risk of losing their assistance as a cost effective means of ensuring affordable housing opportunities.  

Since its creation, the CDFI Fund has awarded over $1.8 billion to community development organizations and financial institutions. 

About Mercy Loan Fund

Mercy Loan Fund, a subsidiary of the national affordable housing organization Mercy Housing, provides financing to hundreds of local nonprofit organizations, enabling them to build or preserve affordable housing in their communities. Since 1985, the organization has made 456 loans in 38 states totaling $256 million, resulting in 19,500 affordable homes for over 52,300 residents. These loans have leveraged more than $1.7 billion in total development funding. Mercy Loan Fund is certified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Mercy Loan Fund was formed with the goal of supporting the mission of Mercy Housing by making loans for affordable housing developments when conventional financing is not possible or affordable. For information about Mercy Loan Fund, please visit www.mercyloanfund.org.