As we hit the ground running in 2024, we want to reflect on the past year and celebrate our organization’s achievements—made possible by the dedication of our partners.

Deepening Our Impact on Residential Homeownership

In 2023, our team facilitated six closings deploying $83 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) allocation to 13 nonprofit housing developers. This funding was distributed to transformative projects in low-income communities in ten states—resulting in the construction or rehabilitation of 371 homes.

Leveraging NMTCs for homeownership is a critical and underutilized tool to address the affordable housing crisis. NMTCs can fill affordability and market funding gaps that prevent affordable for-sale housing development. It can result in more affordable homes for homebuyers earning at or below 80% of the average median income (AMI) in the United States.

Owning a home has a life-changing impact on families, empowering them to build financial capital and create intergenerational wealth. In 2007, our team pioneered an innovative approach to leveraging NMTCs to support affordable for-sale housing.

As the dream of owning a home becomes out of reach for many Americans, the injection of NMTC funding makes a transformative impact. The majority of our projects in 2023 were located in low-income communities with over 80% of each project’s homes being sold to homebuyers who earned at or below the 80% average median income (AMI).

Witnessing the Transformative Impact of NMTCs on Communities

Our team has the pleasure of working with projects that revitalize communities across the country—including right in our own backyard.

Volunteering at the Carter Build 

Donna Smith, Co-founder and Executive Vice President, and Jill M. Gilbert, General Counsel and Vice President, had the opportunity to visit and volunteer with the Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region, which served as the site for a 2023 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

We facilitated a $4 million NMTC allocation for the project, resulting in the development of 39 homes in the Meadows at Plato Price. This area is a historically significant region of West Charlotte with the Plato Price School serving as a centerpiece of a thriving Black neighborhood in 1937. Due to desegregation, the school closed in the 1960s and remained vacant for decades.

The project brought volunteers from all over the world to work side-by-side with partners, supporters, and future homeowners.

Learn more about the project here. 

R&R Marketplace 

In February 2023, we closed a $13 million NMTC transaction in support of R&R Marketplace, a 90,000-square-foot redevelopment of the former Schnucks Plaza in Dellwood, Missouri that has been vacant for nearly 18 years. Located within the St. Louis metropolitan region, this project was particularly meaningful to our St. Louis-based team.

Under the visionary leadership of Pastors Ken and Beverly Jenkins, the founders of Refuge and Restoration, R&R Marketplace provides renewed opportunities for jobs and career development in Dellwood.

Learn more about the project here.

 

Our team had the honor of attending several in-person events throughout the past year.

The NOLA NMTC Conference

In October 2023, team Smith NMTC visited New Orleans for the Novogradac 2023 Fall New Markets Tax Credit Conference where Donna Smith spoke on the panel “NMTC and Housing: A Curious Marriage.”

The panel brought together leaders and experts in leveraging the NMTC program for mixed-use and for-sale affordable housing. We were thrilled to join Novogradac’s Conference and continue to share the importance—and feasibility—of leveraging NMTCs for affordable for-sale housing. You can view a clip from the panel by clicking here.

Our Total Impact

Since Smith NMTC’s founding, we’re proud of deepening our legacy and leveraging the NMTC model to create lasting change in underserved neighborhoods and communities.

Total Residential Impact:

Since launching our model for utilizing NMTCs for for-sale affordable homeownership, we’ve worked with 80 nonprofit housing developers across 32 states and the District of Columbia. This has resulted in a total of 5,449 homes as part of 135 unique projects, primarily located in low-income communities with an average of more than 80% of each projects’ homes being sold to homebuyers earning at or below 80% of the average median income (AMI).

Non-Residential Impact:

In addition to our continued work of expanding affordable homeownership opportunities through NMTCs, we have also worked with nine nonprofits to deploy nearly $80 million in NMTCs toward the development of impactful community revitalization projects.

Total Company Impact

Since our founding, we’ve completed nearly 60 NMTC transactions, deployed over $700 million in allocation, and funded the construction of 5,449 homes for low-income families in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

To learn more about how Smith NMTC collaborates with nonprofit organizations, developers, lenders, investors, and others, click here.