More than one year down, JPMorgan Chase has already deployed or committed more than $13 billion of its $30 billion racial equity commitment.
The four goals established include:
One tine of the commitment’s fork is focused on expanding affordable housing, which is where Alice Carr, JPMorgan Chase’s head of Community Development Banking, comes in. The company has already increased its Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investments by $400 million, but also has expanded its efforts with New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and Historic Tax Credit (HTC) as well.
“This is a starting point for us as a firm,” Carr said. “We believe there’s still a lot of work to do on the initial commitment.”
Narrowing the scope of these efforts to affordable housing, JPMorgan Chase seeks to use $14 billion in new loans, equity investments and other efforts to finance the creation and preservation of 100,000 affordable rental apartments. To date, the financier has funded more than 60,000 affordable housing and rental units across the nation.
It’s also approved $1 billion in lending for new construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing, created a team to offer innovative financing options by working with a broader range of capital sources and closed on $46 million of a $500 million commitment to affordable housing preservation funds.
In tandem with boosting affordable rental housing, JPMorgan Chase has also sought to invest in community institutions and services, including establishing a new Racial Equity Initiative that uses NMTC investments.
Kevin Goldsmith, JPMorgan Chase’s director of tax credit and intermediaries lending in Community Development Banking, said he’s proud of the intentionality his team has shown focusing its efforts toward businesses and nonprofits that are primarily Black-led, Black-owned or Black-serving when developing a Special Purpose Credit Program within its NMTC investment goals.
As of Sept. 30, 2021, the initiative funded $116 million in efforts to further growth and inclusion.
Carr and Goldsmith pointed to a bevy of examples where JPMorgan Chase’s efforts toward racial equity can be seen in action.
“We are only getting started,” Carr said. “We’re just one year in, and there’s a lot of work to do. There’s work we’re doing now that will feed into additional work that we haven’t even formulated yet.”
Adapted with permission from “JPMorgan Chase Reflects on First Year of Racial Equity Commitment,” Nick DeCicco, Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits, January 2022