Team City First

The Future of Urban Resilience

THE FUTURE OF URBAN RESILIENCE  December 7, 2018 / Key takeaways of the City First Community Development Finance Impact Forum/ Blog Socio-economic stresses in the form of racial inequality, housing instability, inequitable education, and toxic environmental exposure are increasingly felt by urban populations, and threaten the progress and resiliency of seemingly prosperous cities. Healthy urban infrastructures are critical to mitigating the impacts of man-made and natural disasters. Leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors must collaborate to develop holistic solutions that enable our cities to thrive in the face of change. Public, private and nonprofit sector leaders shared their…

The Future of Affordable Housing Investment

THE FUTURE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING INVESTMENT October 24, 2018 / Key takeaways of the City First Community Development Finance Impact Forum/ Blog Coffee & Conversation Brian Argrett, President and CEO, City First Bank The purpose of this event is to bring together frontline changemakers in affordable housing. We would like you to leave this event more informed, driven, and connected to address the need for affordable housing. We also want you to come away with ideas to take back to your organization that can be implemented. It’s also important to keep in mind that economic disparities overlap with racial disparities. Who is in the…

What a Big Bank is Doing to Boost Economic Opportunity in a Single City

As the GOP finalized its Tax Cuts and Jobs Act late last year, it was already clear that the legislation would mean additional profits for major corporations, on top of their already impressive earnings in an economy that’s working—for them, at least. The nation’s largest banks are no exception. At JPMorgan Chase, for instance, start-of-year estimates pegged the company’s tax windfall at $4 billion a year, a boost that prompted the bank to up its philanthropic commitments by 40 percent. READ MORE

Symposium: Achieving Racial Equity in Housing Outcomes in D.C.

The District of Columbia is becoming increasingly more segregated by race and income. As outlined in the Urban Institute report The Color of Wealth in the Nation’s Capital, this segregation is built on racist public and private practices, and has amplified disparities and inequities in health, education, work opportunities, with effects that continue today.   LEARN MORE

Building the Foundation: A Blueprint for Creating Affordable Housing for DC’s Lowest-Income Residents

For the District’s extremely low-income residents, affordable housing can serve as a foundation for overall stability and well-being. Yet the District’s recent efforts to create and preserve affordable homes, whileimportant, have not substantially expanded the availability of housing affordable to city’s lowest-income residents. By examining the subsidy cost of addressing severe rent burden among DC’s extremely low-income residents, this report contextualizes the District’s present investments and outlines a ten-year blueprint to create 30,000 units of deeply affordable housing.   LEARN MORE

What’s In the Approved Fiscal Year 2019 Budget for Affordable Housing?

Summary $100 million for the Housing Production Trust Fund $10 million added to the affordable housing preservation fund $1.5 million to provide rent vouchers for families on the DC Housing Authority waiting list $5.1 million new operating subsidies for affordable buildings, including: $3.3 million to make units developed through the Housing Production Trust Fund affordable to the extremely low-income households, $1 million to help existing affordable units to serve lower income levels, and $850,000 for public housing properties redeveloped through the New Communities Initiative $9.2 million added to Targeted Affordable Housing for residents exiting homelessness $9.2 million boost to down…