Creating opportunity is at the center of Brandon Taylor’s work. The 35-year-old has built a career in community development with a focus on affordable housing, spending nearly 10 years at the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC). He started with the LISC New York team and later served as a program officer leading LISC Philadelphia’s Equitable Neighborhoods program. Now he’s back in his home state, serving as executive director of LISC Indianapolis.
“I’ve been able to see our work in several markets,” he says. “What I’m leading now is a culmination of all that I’ve seen at LISC and then also localizing that to the community of Indianapolis and what our neighborhoods here are uniquely facing.”
One of the programs he’s most proud of during the tenure of his leadership at LISC Indianapolis is the Emerging Developers Growth Initiative, a program designed to equip emerging nonprofit and for-profit developers with the skills, tools resources, and the relationships that they need to be successful developers in their communities. To date, the program has graduated 40 developers across two cohorts, with a third cohort started in September, and deployed over $500,000 in predevelopment capital.
Earlier this year, LISC Indianapolis launched its affordable housing strategy, building on the momentum of LISC’s national footprint. He says the organization has goals to raise over $100 million of capital over the next few years, leveraging $300 million in total investment toward affordable housing. In that same time frame, it is aiming to create 1,000 new affordable homes and preserve an additional 600 across the city.
Outside of work, Taylor serves on the boards of In Pursuit, a nonprofit that provides professional men’s attire for economically disadvantaged men preparing to entire the workforce; the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center; and the Habitat Homeownership Finance Solutions.
What drew you into the community development and affordable housing industry?
Taylor: I would have to go all the way back to my upbringing in Merrillville, Indiana. I was raised by two incredible parents who loved their community and were in my mind the model of what a servant leader is. My mom was very involved in education and was a teacher for my entire life. My dad also was very active as a volunteer and started several nonprofits. So from an early age, it just planted the seed in my mind and in my heart to eventually do work that was giving back to the community and being involved in creating better places for people to live. I carried that with me throughout my education and my career. So I credit my upbringing by them and just the impact that they had on their neighbors and on their communities for where I’m at today.
What do you find most rewarding about your job?
The ability to connect people with the resources that they need to create opportunity. So it’s an incredible combination of what I love most, which are math and numbers, and being able to connect that with people and how that can spur change in neighborhoods.
What impact do you hope your work has on residents and communities?
I think sometimes we face so many different challenges in our day-to-day lives, and sometimes that can constrain the vision of hope that some people can have on the future. I hope that my work and the work that we’re leading through LISC inspires people to know that there is hope. There are organizations and people out there who care a lot about communities and are investing their time, talent, and treasures into helping them become better places for them to live.
If you weren't working in community development and affordable housing, what career might you have pursued?
I grew up always wanting to be a soccer player, so I wanted to play professional soccer. That clearly did not happen, but I have a love for the sport and am channeling that into my children now.
What would your team say is your signature phrase or habit?
My signature phrase probably would be: ‘What are the wins and challenges from this week?’ Every staff meeting, I’m constantly asking our team to elevate those things that have been highlights and successes from the week, and then also collaborating around challenges that we’re facing in our work and where we can each lean in to help one another.
What does affordable housing mean to you?
Affordable housing can help families be able to establish themselves, have stability as a family, to not be cost burdened or overburdened by the cost of their housing, and be able to then build themselves and build their families a successful future, where they are able to have access to quality food, access to a well-paying job, and access to resources and other enjoyments for their children and for their families. Affordable housing is, of course, about the home, but it’s also about the other services and the other key pieces that create a quality of life.