Mercy Loan Fund (MLF) announced that it has reached a major milestone—$2 billion leveraged in development costs.
Since its establishment in 1983, the Community Development Financial Institution has closed 490 loans totaling $289 million in 39 states. These loans have helped to create or preserve 22,583 affordable homes for more than 58,000 people nationwide.
In 2015, the eight-person team closed 17 transactions in the amount of $17.3 million, leveraging nearly $200 million in total development costs.
“We are elated to have reached this consequential milestone,” said Jason Battista, president of Denver-based MLF, in a statement. “It demonstrates the total dollars we have been able to leverage into affordable real estate projects benefiting underserved and disadvantaged people and encourages us as we continue our work of revitalizing communities nationwide.”
By collaborating with socially-responsible developers, MLF has helped finance the development of single and multifamily homes for rent and ownership. The developments have helped low-income families, the working poor, seniors, farmworkers, formerly homeless individuals, and people with special needs. The fund is a subsidiary of Mercy Housing, a leading nonprofit affordable housing developer and owner.
As an example of its recent work, MLF partnered with the Low Income Investment Fund to provide $1 million in predevelopment funds to Abode Communities to develop Dana Strand IV, which will provide 88 affordable housing units in Wilmington, Calif., a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
MLF’s future plans include improving financial results by increasing cash flow from operations, pure cash operating margin, and net asset and self-sufficiency ratios. The organization also plans on increasing lending targets in order to reach its five-year goal of $100 million in total lending by 2019.
