Merritt Community Capital Corp. has announced the closing of a $100 million low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) fund.
Fund 25 has seven projects that will provide 486 affordable homes across seven counties in California. About 36% of the units will serve seniors, 44% will be for families, and there will also be 134 special-needs units.
“Community West Bank is honored to partner with Merritt Community Capital Corp. by investing in Fund 25. This important fund supports the efforts of Self-Help Enterprises and its affordable housing community, Santa Fe Commons II, being developed in Tulare, California—a region and population in which we have long invested,” said Shannon Livingston, executive vice president, chief financial officer. “Organizations like Merritt and Self-Help Enterprises transform lives by building stronger communities, a philosophy shared and upheld by our company throughout its 45-year history.”
The latest fund is supported by eight returning investors and one new investor.
Merritt, a nonprofit LIHTC syndicator, has helped create or preserve over 12,000 affordable homes, through investing over $1.6 billion.
At the end of 2024, Merritt announced Carla Vásquez-Noriega’s promotion to senior investor relations manager. Fund 25 is the first fund she closed as the investor relations lead.
“It's a tremendous honor to close the fund that marks Merritt's 35th year investing in affordable housing in California. With support from our investors, we were able to contribute to seven communities across the state, spanning over 550 miles between the northernmost and the southernmost project in the fund,” shared Vásquez-Noriega.
“In Fund 25, we chipped away at the tight housing markets in Los Angeles and San Jose, supported farmworkers in Tulare, and returned to the resilient (and still rebuilding) community of Paradise,” she added. “We are grateful to our mission-aligned partners who want every Californian to have a home in a community where they can thrive.”
