CDE Partners

Smith NMTC collaborates with Community Development Entities (CDEs) in multiple ways:

Our team is skilled in preparing and writing CDE Certification and NMTC Allocation Applications, structuring and facilitating transactions, guaranteeing the recapture risk for nonprofit CDEs, and managing all compliance, accounting and regulatory risk and reports for CDEs.

Smith NMTC provides invaluable expertise in sourcing and structuring transactions, and in liaising with the QALICBs and related parties to ensure successful closings, compliance and exits. Our project experience includes twinning state and historic tax credits with NMTCs.

We are proud of our success developing and managing NMTC programs for the following CDE Partners:

Established in 1992, the Housing Partnership Network (HPN) is an award-winning business collaborative of 100+ of the nation’s leading housing and community development organizations across the United States. Through its unique network approach including peer to peer learning, HPN promotes proven policies and practices, enabling its member organizations and leaders to accelerate and scale innovation to more rapidly respond to changing market challenges and opportunities. As a certified CDFI and CDE, HPN engaged Smith NMTC’s services in 2014 to pursue an NMTC allocation award; it received its first NMTC award through the 2015/2016 application round. HPN has now received an additional 5 allocations, the most recent $70M award announced in December 2025 for the 2024/2025 application round, for a total award of $295M which will begin being deployed in 2026. Since 2017, the Housing Partnership Network, Inc., a, has deployed a total of $225 million in NMTCs to develop 1,061 homes across 13 states.

Community Housing Capital (CHC) is a non-profit CDFI and CDE with 24 years of experience deploying capital to finance the creation and preservation of affordable housing. CHC’s mission is providing equitable access to capital that is transformative for NeighborWorks America organizations and the communities they serve across the United States. CHC received its first NMTC allocation in the 2020 application round, and has now received an additional 3 allocations, the most recent $85M award announced in December 2025 for the 2024/2025 application round, for a total award of $180M which will begin being deployed in 2026. Since 2022, CHC has deployed $95 million in NMTC allocation to fund 14 affordable homeownership projects to develop 344 homes in low-income communities across 9 states.​

Smith NMTC Associates’ partnership with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) was formed in 2007 when Howard Smith, accompanied by Zac Boyers and Marc Hirshman of US Bank CDC, approached HFHI with an offer. They envisioned a partnership where HFHI would select HFHI affiliates to be funded—and Smith NMTC Associates would form the entity, draft an NMTC application, manage all CDE activity, and guarantee the recapture risk for HFHI and its QALICBs.

In 2008, Smith NMTC Associates pioneered our groundbreaking NMTC for-sale housing model and our multi-QALICB model in our first Habitat for Humanity International transaction, deploying $25 million to 5 Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone affiliates. That transaction utilizing our NMTC for-sale housing model resulted in 251 homes developed and sold to families with incomes at or below 80% AMI. Over the course of our partnership, HFHI received three additional allocations, funding a total of 32 projects and resulting in 1,622 homes sold to low-income buyers.