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The National Association of State and Local Equity Funds (NASLEF), is a professional, nonprofit association formed to promote the efficient management of state and local equity funds. Throughout 42 states, NASLEF Active Members raise capital for affordable rental housing developments that qualify under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. Collectively through 2018, member funds have raised over $15.6 billion in equity capital for rental housing developments throughout the country, creating or rehabilitating more than 190,026 units of affordable housing in 3,968 developments.
OUR MISSION
NASLEF’s mission is to promote a greater understanding of tax credit and other financing programs, to advocate for community development resources and to encourage the professional development of its member organizations all in support of the communities we serve. Our work is fueled by our members’ leadership in affordable housing advocacy, connection with community organizations, and knowledge of local markets. These organizational attributes enable NASLEF members to invest capital in strategic community endeavors, especially in underserved markets.
OUR IMPACT
NASLEF Active Members are visible in the communities they serve by providing affordable housing opportunities, strengthening neighborhoods, and impacting the lives of residents. Many member funds have developed philanthropic affiliates and foundations that fund programs that assist residents socially, economically, and educationally. Member funds also provide value-added services to development partners in the areas of technical assistance, training, engaging in local and state housing policy groups, and providing lending opportunities as certified CDFI organizations.
NASLEF member funds will continue to lobby for the continuation of the most successful affordable housing program in the nation. Fund members will continue to raise capital to provide affordable housing options for families, seniors, individuals, and special needs populations. NASLEF will continue to be a local presence with national impact on affordable housing.
Robert Rozen
With the election of a new Congress in November, 2018 the state of play in Washington has changed considerably. While Republicans continue to hold the White House and Senate, Democrats have assumed control of the House. This alters the landscape for tax and budget legislation, making it more difficult to move legislation through Congress to enactment.
However, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (“Housing Credit”) has always commanded strong bipartisan support and fortunately that support will endure notwithstanding the changes in Congress. Yes, the program lost its primary Republican Senate sponsor, the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Orin Hatch (R-UT) who retired. But at the same time, our primary Democratic House supporter, Richard Neal (D-MA) has become the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. With the considerable turnover in Congress, the tax-writing committees which are responsible for the Housing Credit, have many new Members.
Some of our strong supporters are no longer serving in Congress. New Members, who we must get to know, have joined the tax writing committees in the House and Senate. With the convening of a new Congress all legislation from the previous Congress dies and new bills must be introduced. As of this writing, much work is being devoted to reviewing the Housing Credit bills from the last Congress, and to lining up our key sponsors. The bills are expected to include a handful of new provisions reflecting issues that have arisen in the last few years. The Senate bill from the last Congress eventually attracted the sponsorship of 46 Senators while the House bill had 183 cosponsors. That is an achievement that the Housing Credit community can be proud of. While a long list of cosponsors is not a guarantee that legislation will be enacted in full, the broad, bipartisan congressional support we enjoy is a very positive indicator for the program. It helps insulate us from outside attack and increases our ability to get more resources for affordable housing. The challenge this year and next is to generate as much support for the Housing Credit bills introduced in this Congress.
In the last Congress, the House and Senate bills were identical except the House bill did not include the 50% increase in the credit allocation cap. Our objective this year is to introduce identical bills in both bodies. We don’t expect these bills to be enacted without changes. Nor do we expect the bills to move on their own independently. Individual tax bills are generally incorporated into larger legislation and the prospects for appropriate vehicles are hard to discern right now with the beginning of a new Congress. But that is not our focus. Our job is to continue to engage elected officials, make sure they understand the crisis in affordable housing, and build support for our efforts to get more resources for the Housing Credit program. At some point, an appropriate legislative vehicle will come forth and with the strong support that we have built for our legislation we will be able to make a case for inclusion in the broader bill.
Building that support is a responsibility for the entire affordable housing community. We have met the challenge in the past and must continue to do so going forward. Congress changes, majorities come and go, but with all our efforts the Housing Credit will continues to enjoy broad bipartisan support and we will eventually get more resources for affordable housing.
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Dana S. Boole
President and Chief Executive Officer
CAHEC
Mark McDaniel
President & CEO
Cinnaire
Stacy L. Sur
Member
Hawaii Housing Finance, LLC
Nancy Owens
President
Housing Vermont
Peter Sargent
Director of Capital Development
Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation
Lisa Castillo
President
Merritt Community Capital Corporation
John Wiechmann
President
Midwest Housing Equity Group, Inc.
Don Sterhan
President
Mountain Plains Equity Group, Inc.
Bill Shanahan
President
Northern New England Housing Investment Fund
Hal Keller
President
Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing
John Kennedy
President & CEO
St. Louis/Kansas City Equity Fund, Inc.
Bob Newman
President & CEO
Virginia Community Development Corporation
Peg Moertl joined Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) as President in April 2019. Previously, she led HCDC, a non-profit economic development agency in Hamilton County, for 35 years. Before HCDC, Peg was Senior VP of Community Development Banking at PNC Bank, focusing on community development loans, investments, and small business lending. Her background includes roles at Banc One (now JPMorgan Chase) and the National Federation of Housing Counselors.
She also served as Director of Development for the City of Cincinnati, Executive Director of Women Entrepreneurs Inc., and helped create the region's first microloan program. Peg has been on numerous boards, including the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Urban League, and Strategies to End Homelessness. Peg has received multiple honors, including being named one of Cincinnati Magazine’s 2019 Most Powerful Business Leaders, a YWCA Career Woman of Achievement, and one of the Top 15 Ohio Women Business Leaders by the Ohio Women’s Conference. She is a graduate of Leadership Cincinnati Class XXIII.
There are two levels of membership in the NASLEF association: Active Member and Corporate Member. If you are interested in becoming an Active or Corporate member, please review the eligibility information below to ensure your organization qualifies. Membership in NASLEF must be approved by the NASLEF Board of Directors. We thank you for your interest in NASLEF and encourage you to submit an application. If you have any questions, please contact MARY KAY MEAGHER, NASLEF Executive Director.
PORTFOLIO OF HOMES BUILT
EQUITY RAISED
RESIDENT VOICES
NASLEF member funds not only invest in affordable housing communities but also invest in the residents who live in our communities. We know that providing safe, decent, affordable housing is a catalyst to revitalizing neighborhoods and stabilizing lives. We help provide supportive services that link residents to health, education, and employment services that will impact their lives socially, educationally, and economically.
Our residents value their housing and their lives are impacted daily by what it means to have a safe, stable place to call home.
UNITS BUILT
NASLEF MISSION: VALUE-ADDED TO PARTNERS
While raising capital to provide affordable housing opportunities is our core business, NASLEF member funds also actively provide value-added services to our partners in the industry. Many member funds serve vulnerable populations by investing resources into programs and activities that impact residents’ lives. Member funds have developed philanthropic affiliates and foundations that fund programs that assist residents socially, economically, and educationally.
Examples for 2018 from Member Funds include:
The CAHEC Foundation: As an affiliate of CAHEC, the CAHEC Foundation offers wellness and education initiatives to residents living in areas that CAHEC serves. In addition to CAHEC’s current menu of Community Investments grants, the CAHEC Foundation creates opportunities that go beyond affordable housing to help residents receive the critical resources they need to succeed. In 2018, CAHEC and the CAHEC Foundation granted $738,793.
Virginia Community Development Corporation (VCDC): In 2008, VCDC established the Vern Henley Special Initiatives Grant Program that awards VCDC partners grants of up to $40,000 annually. Funds awarded through this program provide activities, services, equipment, or programming to better the lives of residents throughout our portfolio of communities.
In addition, in 2015 VCDC developed an intensive organizational development program called the Nonprofit Sustainability Challenge (NSC). Over the course of a year, two leaders from each participating nonprofit housing or community development organization identify and pursue the most pressing challenge(s) to the long-term sustainability of their operation. The program helps to ensure success through providing ongoing support by skilled coaches and peer groups, relevant reading assignments, the introduction and reinforcement of useful tools and frameworks that have proven to be successful in driving performance-based outcomes. The program, now approaching its fourth offering, has been the catalyst for significant transformational change in 20 nonprofit participants to date. The fourteen organizations from the first two cohorts have collectively realized over $7,500,000 in improvements to their balance sheets during their year-long participation in the program, allowing those funds to be put back to work in the most vulnerable communities they serve. By the time the fourth cohort is completed in June of 2020, VCDC will have invested over $665,000 to support the Nonprofit Sustainability program, which ultimately be leveraged many times over to benefit the communities served by the program participants.
Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH’s) philanthropic affiliate, the Ohio Capital Impact Corporation, funds programs targeted to neighborhoods and residents where OCCH has investments in affordable housing. More than $21 million in grants to partners has been awarded since 2012 in these areas: Resident Development Fund, Partners, Neighborhoods, and Community Properties Impact Fund. In 2018, more than $3.8 million was awarded for activities such as summer camp for residents’ children, neighborhood initiatives, property improvement, wellness, youth empowerment and engagement activities, senior activities, and the Jerry Grier Scholarship program, which assists residents with post-secondary education.
Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC): MHIC operates a Charitable Contribution budget that starts at $25,000. MHIC also purchases MA Community Investment Tax Credits (CITC) each year, the proceeds of which go directly to eligible CDCs.
Housing Vermont is operating the Parsons Platform, a cloud-based data collection and monitoring system for optimizing energy related investments in 12 properties this year. Through constant monitoring, the Platform revealed the water pumps in the district heating plant at Peter Coe Apartments in Middlebury, VT were set much too high, causing excess electricity consumption. A simple adjustment resulted in $1,500 savings annually in reduced electricity usage and less wear and tear on the systems. Further monitoring and analysis allowed HV to optimize the performance of the boiler system and to determine a back-up boiler recommended by the engineer was not needed. This saved the property $15,000 in unnecessary equipment costs and an additional $10,000 annual savings in fuel costs. The $11,500 annual savings realized by the Parsons Platform at Peter Coe Apartments helps support and sustain other important investments that improve residents’ lives, such as free Wifi, participation in a local mentoring and enrichment programming and access to a range of services through HV Connections, HV’s program to build connections between community resources and residents.
Merritt Community Capital Corporation: Merritt offers funding for educational advancement. In 2016, Francisco State University awarded $23,434 to 3 students and California State University East Bay awarded $9,215 to 1 student.
Northern New England Housing Investment Fund’s scholarship program, “Investing in Your Success” is designed to help meet the training needs of our Partners by providing funds to supplement their training budgets. We know training is essential to doing a job well and many organizations are stretched thin right now. This program is one way for us to say: “we value the work you do and we support you”. Eligible training includes LIHTC compliance related training, conferences, soft skills and maintenance related training. In 2018, $15k in scholarship funds was disbursed to 38 partners in Maine & New Hampshire helping to support the training of 115 staff.
Other funding includes:
Member funds engage development and management partners by providing opportunities for training and education on a regular basis. Examples include:
Member funds recognize that importance of providing technical assistance to partners navigating HUD and Housing Finance Agencies programs. Assistance is given in:
Member funds are actively involved in state and federal housing policy issues, engaging lobbyists, and serving on:
Member funds focus on raising capital and providing equity for affordable housing development and preservation. Many funds also offer loan products or operate a Certified Development Financial Institutions Program that offers:
