Portfolio Partner Profile
Housing Partnership Network
Housing Partnership Network (HPN) is a national collaborative of leading housing and community development organizations as well as an Aeris-rated CDFI and HUD-approved housing counseling intermediary. HPN members include nonprofit affordable housing developers and owners, housing counseling agencies, CDFIs, and public housing authorities. Members work in urban, rural, and suburban markets, and across all housing asset classes.
The organization is a national and global membership model that facilitates peer-to-peer learning and promotes policy, practice, and innovation that is based on the proven experience from over 100 of the nation’s leading affordable housing and community development nonprofits.
Since 1999, HPN has catalyzed over a dozen successful social enterprises. Examples include the Housing Partnership Fund, an award-winning CDFI and one of the first financial intermediaries to provide critical enterprise-level capital to affordable housing owners and developers; the Housing Partnership Insurance Exchange, a property and casualty insurance company that insures member units at rates reflecting members’ superior performance; a web-based homeownership education platform serving over a million consumers known as Framework; two development companies in cities formerly lacking significant non-profit capacity including Gulf Coast Housing and Develop Detroit; and the incubation of the National Community Stabilization Trust to respond to the foreclosure crisis and help preserve and revitalize neighborhoods.
As of July 2023, HPN has collectively served over 13 million people; developed, rehabilitated, or preserved over 500,000 affordable homes; and launched over a dozen successful social enterprises. Our work has been recognized with honors including the MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions and Wells Fargo NEXT Award for Opportunity Finance.
Featured Impact Story
Impact Story
Working capital for developers led by people of color
In 2021, Housing Partnership Fund (HPF) launched the Housing Equity Fund (HEF) to provide catalytic, enterprise-level capital to HPN members who are led by people of color at the CEO or Board level. Through this product, HPF aims to address a critical capital barrier perpetuated by systemic racism. Just 2% of real estate companies in the US are black-led and 1.5% of real estate assets are controlled by firms owned or led by people of color. HEF loans are interest-only, working capital loans that support affordable rental and homeownership activities. HPF closed its first HEF loan in December 2021.
Homeport, based in Columbus, OH, has seen its development pipeline balloon in recent years, requiring the developer either to spend more of its cash to move projects through predevelopment or secure predevelopment project loans. Like many HPN members, Homeport has also used its own resources to bridge committed soft funds from public agencies that were delayed. As an alternative to using valuable cash reserves or being forced to obtain project-specific financing, Homeport applied to HPF for working capital to increase the organization’s ability to move more efficiently through acquisition and predevelopment. Leah Evans, pictured above, became Homeport’s CEO in January 2022, after serving for several years as its head of Real Estate Development. Leah’s ascension to this leadership role during underwriting allowed HPF to utilize HEF capital to provide a lower rate than HPF’s traditional enterprise loan product.
“We are confident that as Homeport continues to grow, HPF will be there to grow with us.” – Valorie Schwarzmann, CFO, Homeport