…The Housing Partnership Network (HPN), founded in 1990, is a network of 100 of the nation’s leading affordable housing and community development nonprofits. These organizations work together through HPN to increase the affordable housing stock by sharing effective business practices, promoting innovation, and improving housing policy. As demand for affordable rental housing grew in the wake of the housing crisis, HPN’s members saw a need for a more flexible and responsive financing tool to preserve affordable housing in changing communities.
In January 2013, HPN and its partners launched the Housing Partnership Equity Trust (HPET). HPET operates as a real estate investment trust with a focus on a “triple bottom line,” that is, a financial return for investors; a commitment to make buildings more energy efficient; and a social mission that targets the housing and service needs of low- and moderate-income residents. HPET pools equity investments from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Prudential with a line of credit from Citibank and Morgan Stanley. HPN manages and operates HPET…Please click here to read more of Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube’s blog post on confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org, or here to find local Housing Partnership Network organizations.