JPMorgan Chase Delivers Over $1 Billion in Community Development Financing

JPMorgan Chase today delivers a detailed look at the support it provided in 2021 to help drive inclusive economic growth through financing for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investments. The firm has been working with CDFIs and making NMTC investments for over two decades, and further strengthened its support as part of its $30 Billion Racial Equity Commitment.

Both CDFIs and NMTC investments extend the firm’s reach deep into underserved communities to effect change through support for the development of affordable housing, community facilities and small businesses that contribute to thriving neighborhoods, such as grocery stores, daycare centers, schools and health clinics. This financing also incentivizes and drives funding, helping to create jobs and address important economic and social inequities in under-resourced areas.

Today the firm is offering a look at the impact of the support it provides via philanthropic capital and financial products. Throughout 2021, JPMorgan Chase:

1.       Provided over $500 million in financing to CDFIs to expand access to capital and create impact

JPMorgan Chase provides support for CDFIs from different parts of the firm to supply financing ranging from philanthropy to debt. The firm also collaborates closely with CDFIs and provides additional resources and technical assistance, such as support from its Service Corps program, which matches employee teams with nonprofit organizations where they can leverage their business acumen and diverse skill sets to support organizational sustainability and increase community impact.

“By bringing together the firm’s resources, we are able to provide innovative solutions that extend beyond traditional philanthropy," said Erin Robert, Head of Impact Finance at JPMorgan Chase. “We are able to tackle issues from multiple angles through our collaborative approach with our colleagues across the organization.”

Last year, the firm provided over $500 million in financing to CDFIs to support over 100 loan funds specializing in community development. As part of its Racial Equity Commitment, the firm committed an additional $300 million beyond its typical annual financing for CDFIs to be deployed within five years, and it has achieved over 60% of its goal.

Examples of financing for CDFIs include:

• Accelerator Fund: JPMorgan Chase provided $7 million in financing for the $45 million fund that Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) manages, which serves the Purpose Built Communities network with its comprehensive neighborhood development strategy aimed at supporting racial equity, economic mobility and improved health outcomes.
• Finance Justice Fund: JPMorgan Chase committed over $20 million in financing to Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) for its Finance Justice Fund to address long-standing disinvestment issues, the racial wealth gap and persistent poverty nationwide. The capital is a composition of senior and subordinated debt and philanthropy, carefully designed to promote catalytic growth with flexibility to help OFN reach CDFIs that support the most underserved communities.
• Equitable Path Forward (EPF) Growth Fund: With its $40 million investment, the firm anchored the loan fund managed by Enterprise Community Loan Fund to provide flexible entity-level capital in the form of unsecured, low-cost, working capital and predevelopment financing to Black, Latino and other historically marginalized developers.

JPMorgan Chase’s CDFI funding tied to its Racial Equity Commitment is already being deployed and is supporting community development activities across the country. Neighborhood Development Company (NDC)—an early lending recipient of the EPF Growth Fund—is a Washington, D.C.-based, minority-owned commercial real estate development company. NDC provides solutions for a broad range of community challenges including affordable housing shortages, food deserts and space for local entrepreneurs. With the capital from the EPF Growth Fund, NDC expects to compete for larger, mission-driven projects in emerging neighborhoods, as well as invest in its business operations, such as adding staff and enhancing technology.

“Our goal has always been to do more than just build buildings. We want to create healthy, sustainable communities,” said Adrian Washington, CEO and Founder of NDC. “We strengthen communities by bringing people together and delivering developments that have a positive and lasting impact. Our hands-on approach, coupled with the long cycle for development, requires capital. The financing that we received from the EPF Growth Fund is critical for us to create properties that have the potential to transform and meet the needs of a flourishing neighborhood.”

2.       Distributed over $500 million in NMTC financing to revitalize distressed communities

Throughout 2021, JPMorgan Chase provided over $500 million in NMTC financing to help stimulate economic growth. These NMTC resources fill project financing gaps, enabling investors to provide more funding than would typically be possible. The firm committed to provide an additional $100 million in NMTC financing annually until 2025 as part of its Racial Equity Commitment. At the end of 2020, JPMorgan Chase also established a NMTC racial equity initiative, which uses NMTC investments to spur growth and inclusion by benefitting Black-owned or -led projects primarily serving Black populations. Since then, through the end of December 2021, the firm has financed over $221 million in NMTC investments across 16 projects.

In Chicago, for example, JPMorgan Chase made an equity investment to support $14.5 million in NMTC financing for Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC) with the redevelopment of a 1920s-era building for use as a multi-tenant healthy lifestyle hub in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood—an area historically lacking healthcare facilities. The new space is intended to fill voids in a community previously without a pharmacy, sit-down restaurants and federally qualified health centers (FQHC). The healthy lifestyle hub will be home to an expansion site for the University of Illinois Mile Square Health, a FQHC, and a locally-owned pharmacy and radiology facility.

“Having access to a safe and stable place to live is critical, but vibrant and diverse neighborhoods offer more than housing,” said Kevin Goldsmith, Director of Tax Credits and Intermediaries Lending at JPMorgan Chase. “Working with community organizations, nonprofits and financial institutions, we’re financing high-impact developments with the potential to contribute to catalytic growth and help shape healthy neighborhoods where residents can thrive.”

Projects that attract NMTC investments strive to create jobs, and GAGDC created its Auburn Gresham Local Workforce program focused on building and sustaining community wealth by providing employment and development opportunities. The program supports local residents with training and skill-based certifications, including environmental remediation and asbestos removal. When participants finish their work and complete their time in the program, they are more highly skilled, certified and capable of securing higher-paying jobs.

“Healthy communities offer a higher quality of life by providing services that address residents’ overall wellness—physical, mental and financial. This has been our guiding principle as we’ve developed the Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub to support our community,” said Carlos Nelson, CEO of GAGDC. “We’re proud to say this redevelopment effort is more than a building—it’s a transformative and collaborative initiative that is revitalizing our community and empowering residents to thrive here for generations to come.”

Additional projects JPMorgan Chase supported with NMTC funding include:

• Meals on Wheels San Antonio (MOWSA): JPMorgan Chase’s equity investment to support $21 million in NMTC financing will enable MOWSA to construct a new facility to meet the needs of a growing senior population in the region. The new facility will include an expanded commercial kitchen to increase meal production and a larger Alzheimer’s activity center, along with more programming and administrative space. MOWSA expects to serve 8,575 seniors annually, a 27% increase in capacity from its existing facility.
• Caritas Center: JPMorgan Chase provided an equity investment to support $39.5 million in NMTC financing for the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa to enable the construction of a comprehensive service center for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Caritas Center includes a 192-bed family shelter, children's program, 38-bed recuperation shelter, drop-in center, and a medical clinic run by partner Santa Rosa Community Health. Three CDFIs, including TELACU Community Capital, Clearinghouse CDFI and Enterprise, provided the NMTC for the transaction.
• Promise Academy II: The $18 million NMTC financing support from JPMorgan Chase is helping redevelop vacant city-owned land in East Harlem into a mixed-use development that will include 700 units of affordable housing and an elementary school operated by Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), which will provide high-quality, standards-based academic programs for students. Both students and their families will also have access to HCZ’s comprehensive network of supports, including counseling, benefits assistance and other social services.

Economic opportunity is deeply rooted in neighborhood conditions. Healthy, vibrant communities provide access to vital facilities that support health, education, job opportunities and other measures of wellness. JPMorgan Chase remains dedicated to helping empower people and strengthen communities by expanding access to capital and services to foster equitable growth and inclusion.

For more information

• Corporate Responsibility, visit https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact.  
• Impact Finance, visit https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/our-approach/impact-finance.
• Community Development Banking, visit www.chase.com/cdb.

About JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $4.0 trillion in assets and $285.9 billion in stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2022. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.