Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) released their 2015 report, and the results of the impact and reach are remarkable. In short, 2015 was the best year in LISC’s history, and the numbers underscore an expanding level of local impact.
LISC financed 21,000 affordable homes and apartments, for instance — the most ever for LISC in a single year. Those investments were often the catalyst for additional development that reduced blight and crime.
All of that contributed to LISC’s $1.3 billion in program and investment activity for 2015. One project LISC put financial stake in was 2700 University, a Flaherty & Collins Properties development in St. Paul, Minnesota, near the Westgate Station on the Green Line.
“We support development that puts low-income residents close to transportation to make it easier for them to access jobs as well as all the amenities they need and deserve,” LISC stated in the report.
Ryan Cronk, lead developer of the 2700 University project and Vice President of Development at Flaherty & Collins Properties, agrees.
“With a project as transformative and unique as 2700, you want project partners who see the vision of what you’re trying to accomplish, the difference you want to make in an area,” Cronk said. “We’re extremely appreciative and thankful that LISC saw what we saw.”
LISC states in their annual report that it is community advocates who ensure that projects like 2700 are possible.
“Community development doesn’t happen ‘for’ neighborhoods or ‘to’ neighborhoods; it happens ‘with’ the local people who know their neighborhoods best,” the report states. “When we succeed, we can see it, but they can feel it in the quality of their parks and shops and homes and schools. They know.”
Read the entire 2015 LISC Annual Report here.