The McCune Foundation and the Ventura County Housing Trust Fund are pleased to announce a partnership between the two organizations in support of their mutual missions.
The McCune Foundation is providing a $100,000 loan to VCHTF to help finance affordable housing developments in Ventura County. The Housing Trust Fund’s $4 million Revolving Loan Fund makes below-market rate loans for the development of affordable housing.
The five-year loan from the foundation will be leveraged with a matching grant from the State of California, Proposition 1C (Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006) Local Housing Trust Fund Program.
“The McCune Foundation wanted to go beyond the impact of our grants by investing a portion of our endowment in a local project,” said Sara Miller McCune, the foundation’s president and co-founder. “It is our hope that other institutions with endowments might also consider redirecting some of their investments to projects that support their communities.”
Linda Braunschweiger, CEO of the Housing Trust Fund, stated that “leveraging the foundation monies with the State’s Prop. 1C grant doubles the impact to create new affordable housing units desperately needed in our high cost housing market. As the loan is repaid, both the foundation funds and the state funds will circulate through VCHTF’s revolving loan pool, thereby becoming available for loans to other worthwhile housing projects and helping both organizations to pursue their missions.”
“This five-year loan from our endowment will carry a two percent interest rate — comparable to our past investments in bonds,” said Claudia Armann, executive director of the McCune Foundation. “Our board was motivated by knowing that the loan would be matched dollar-for-dollar by the state and that the program supports affordable housing — an issue that is a priority for many of our grantees. We also believe that creating safe and affordable housing builds community and social capital.”
Braunschweiger added: “Today developers and funders of affordable housing must be creative and develop new partnerships to access capital not previously leveraged for affordable housing. This partnership is a great example of bringing new dollars to the table to help fill the gap left by drastic cuts in traditional Federal, State and local housing funding sources.”
— Claudia Armann is executive director of the McCune Foundation.