Loan program aimed at Black affordable housing builders gets $1M boost
The Seattle Foundation announced Thursday it’s making a $1 million investment in a loan program that helps Black developers build affordable housing in the Puget Sound region.
The Field Order 15 fund was created by the Seattle-based community development financial institution HomeSight in January. Developers who qualify get grants for project planning. For projects deemed feasible, the developers become eligible for low-interest pre-development loans and technical assistance to apply for construction financing.
The fund is named for a post-Civil War field order that to give each newly freed Black person “40 acres and a mule” from land the government was to seize from Confederate enslavers. The order (which didn't actually mention mules) never came to be. The Field Order 15 fund aims to make good on the equity promise.
The Seattle Foundation will add $1 million to the fund in the form of a 5-year, 1% loan, a structure it calls an impact investment. The principal and income generated from the loan will be returned to the fund to be reinvested for long-term impact.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2024/06/07/loans-black-developers-affordable-housing.html