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Richmond Housing Renovation ProgramCity of Richmond and Richmond Community Foundation Partner on first of its Kind Social Impact Bond
On June 2, 2015, the Richmond City Council voted to issue up to $3 million in Social Impact Bonds for the purpose of rehabilitating and repairing abandoned residential properties in the City. The Richmond Community Foundation (RCF) will facilitate the program from acquisition to sale of the properties. Families who are participating in SparkPoint Contra Costa, a local financial services program with 17 nonprofit partners, will be given the first opportunity to purchase the homes through the First Time Home Buyer program.
Social impact bonds are an emerging strategy which blends private investments and with projects that generate a positive social impact. Investors purchase the bonds to fund programs designed to address social issues. If the program is successful and earns a profit as a result, the profits are used to repay the investors and help continue the work to tackle social problems.
“This program will accomplish the important task of acquiring and rehabilitating distressed homes in order to improve neighborhoods and provide safer and more affordable housing for Richmond residents,” said Mayor Tom Butt. “The City will, as a whole, benefit from the practice of social impact investing because the bonds are paid solely from the revenues generated from the sale of the rehabilitated properties.”
Richmond’s Code Enforcement Department currently manages more than 250 blighted, abandoned properties, keeping them boarded up, cutting weeds, removing illegal dumping etc. This costs the City of Richmond approximately $7,000 per house annually.
The program has several goals:
On January 26th, key partners toured one of the first properties to be renovated through this program - construction will begin on two houses in early February! Read the front page article in the Contra Costa Times here.
NBC News also covered this innovative new program on the evening news - click here to watch!For more information about the program, you can watch this short video of Joshua Genser, Richmond Community Foundation Board Chair, speaking at SOCAP15 (the premier international conference on social capital markets) in October.
Josh Genser speaks at SOCAP about the Social Impact Bond.Related Articles:
Adding Good Deeds to the Investment Equation
Richmond's Plan to Bring Decaying Houses Back from the Dead
News Release Office of Mayor Tom Butt
Social Impact Bonds: A Better Way to Combat Blight
On June 2, 2015, the Richmond City Council voted to issue up to $3 million in Social Impact Bonds for the purpose of rehabilitating and repairing abandoned residential properties in the City. The Richmond Community Foundation (RCF) will facilitate the program from acquisition to sale of the properties. Families who are participating in SparkPoint Contra Costa, a local financial services program with 17 nonprofit partners, will be given the first opportunity to purchase the homes through the First Time Home Buyer program.
Social impact bonds are an emerging strategy which blends private investments and with projects that generate a positive social impact. Investors purchase the bonds to fund programs designed to address social issues. If the program is successful and earns a profit as a result, the profits are used to repay the investors and help continue the work to tackle social problems.
“This program will accomplish the important task of acquiring and rehabilitating distressed homes in order to improve neighborhoods and provide safer and more affordable housing for Richmond residents,” said Mayor Tom Butt. “The City will, as a whole, benefit from the practice of social impact investing because the bonds are paid solely from the revenues generated from the sale of the rehabilitated properties.”
Richmond’s Code Enforcement Department currently manages more than 250 blighted, abandoned properties, keeping them boarded up, cutting weeds, removing illegal dumping etc. This costs the City of Richmond approximately $7,000 per house annually.
The program has several goals:
- Create clean, safe and decent housing – appropriate to neighborhood
- Provide opportunities for First Time Home Buyers through GJ HOLDING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
- Stabilize neighborhoods
- Create Social Impact Bond Financing Model to recycle funding to maximize number of housing units in the program
- Increased neighborhood homeownership rates
- Reduced code enforcement costs and police calls for service
- Stabilized neighborhood property values
- Increased property tax revenue for the City of Sacramento
On January 26th, key partners toured one of the first properties to be renovated through this program - construction will begin on two houses in early February! Read the front page article in the Contra Costa Times here.
NBC News also covered this innovative new program on the evening news - click here to watch!For more information about the program, you can watch this short video of Joshua Genser, Richmond Community Foundation Board Chair, speaking at SOCAP15 (the premier international conference on social capital markets) in October.
Josh Genser speaks at SOCAP about the Social Impact Bond.Related Articles:
Adding Good Deeds to the Investment Equation
Richmond's Plan to Bring Decaying Houses Back from the Dead
News Release Office of Mayor Tom Butt
Social Impact Bonds: A Better Way to Combat Blight
