Hoping to catalyze more affordable housing in underserved Chicago neighborhoods, JPMorgan Chase announced a commitment Tuesday to provide more than $10 million in loans for residential development on the city’s South and West sides.
The bank will loan the $10 million to the Chicago Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit lender, which will use the money to provide capital for developers to build new affordable housing in communities of color in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods.
“This $10 million will be transformational for small and nonprofit developers who are helping to fill the affordable housing gap in Chicago’s South and West sides,” Gov. JB Pritzker said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s Far West Side. “More importantly, it’s going to give Chicago’s most struggling working families an affordable place to rest their heads at night, and make our communities that much stronger in the process.”
The new loan builds on the bank’s previous $10 million capital infusion to CCLF, a federally certified community development financial institution. Both loans are part of Chase’s 2017 commitment to provide $200 million in economic support for the city’s South and West sides.
The inability to access low-cost capital is a major deterrent to development, contributing to an affordable housing shortage in communities across the city. The Chase loan will enable the Chicago Community Loan Fund to help finance up to 15 smaller affordable housing projects, the bank said Tuesday.
“We’re lending to them at a very low market rate … so they can then pass along those low-cost funds to businesses and developers in the South and West side of Chicago,” Kevin Goldsmith, managing director of community development banking at JPMorgan Chase, told the Tribune.
Chase is also providing a $275,000 gift to CCLF, most of which will support the organization’s broader Communities of Color loan program.
In 2018, Chase loaned $10 million to CCLF to provide capital to boost small businesses and retailers on the city’s South and West sides. The bank’s previous loan led to more than 200 jobs and the development of five commercial real estate projects, including Bronzeville Cookin’, a culinary and entertainment center in the South Side neighborhood.
Commitments from JPMorgan Chase have helped CCLF substantially improve its financial strength in recent years. The nonprofit lender, which is certified by the Department of the Treasury to provide financial services in low-income communities, has closed 633 loans worth more than $357 million since it was founded in 1991, and now holds nearly $180 million in total assets.
The new $10 million Chase loan will go a long way toward advancing the organization’s mission, Bob Tucker, CCLF’s interim president, said Tuesday.
“This initiative will provide sustained low-cost capital to help our borrowers develop healthy communities with housing, commercial facilities, retail and social enterprises in longtime underinvested communities,” Tucker said. “The substantial infusion of capital by JPMorgan Chase will advance CCLF’s goal to transform our entire region into one with equitable prosperity for all.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com