Housing Partnership Equity Trust Launches with $100M in Funding for Affordable Communities

The Housing Partnership Equity Trust announced that it has raised $100 million. It will begin investing in multifamily communities in partnership with 12 high-performing nonprofit housing providers.

By Jessica Fiur, News Editor

Washington, D.C.—The Housing Partnership Equity Trust (HPET), which was formed as a social-purpose REIT, announced that it has raised $100 million from Citi, Morgan Stanley, Prudential Financial Inc., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. It will begin investing in multifamily communities in partnership with 12 high-performing nonprofit housing providers.

HPET is sponsored and operated by the Housing Partnership Network, a business collaborative of housing and community development nonprofits. It will provide capital to allow the nonprofits to quickly acquire affordable communities.

“Each year, affordable housing is lost to the marketplace, and it’s not being replaced,” Drew Ades, president and CEO, Housing Partnership Equity Trust, tells MHN. “At the same time, wage stagnation and economic pressures increase the need for affordable housing. So there’s great demand, and dwindling supply. HPET offers an innovative approach, a market-driven solution that preserves affordable housing and makes it possible to continue offering it to families, seniors and others with modest incomes.”

HPET’s first traction will allow Mercy Housing Lakefront to acquire and rehabilitate a 128-unit property in Aurora, Ill.

“By providing a ready source of funds, HPET allows its nonprofit partners to respond quickly to an opportunity in the marketplace and acquire and preserve affordable housing stock,” Ades says. “Mercy is a great example.”

Acquisitions funded by HPET will target properties near public transportation and other community amenities.

The 12 nonprofit members of HPET include: AHC Housing Inc., BRIDGE Housing Corporation, Chicanos Por La Causa, Community Development and Preservation Corporation, Eden Housing Inc., Hispanic Housing Development Corporation, Homes for America Inc., LINC Housing Corporation, Mercy Housing, Nevada HAND Inc., NHP Foundation and NHT/Enterprise.

HPET is already working on their next acquisition as well.

“HPET is working with our partners and looking in several communities around the country,” Ades says. “We look forward to announcing additional acquisitions in the coming months.”