LISC Jacksonville received a $300,000 grant from the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development funds. LISC Jacksonville was awarded the grant from LISC’s national office in New York which administers the funds from the government’s program. To date, LISC nationally has contributed $2.5 million in grants to LISC Jacksonville as well as access to their low cost loan pool.
“We are extremely excited to receive this funding,” said Joni Foster, senior program director for LISC Jacksonville. “Every field office of LISC applied for funding therefore the award process was extremely competitive.”
These dollars will be added to the Capacity Building Fund which is jointly funded by LISC and the City of Jacksonville and managed by LISC. The funds provide $1 million per year to local nonprofit community developers to hire staff and build their organizational capacity to revitalize neighborhoods and develop affordable housing.
HUD Section 4/Living Cities funds provides seed capital that community groups use to attract private investment for housing, economic development and other community revitalization activities. This money is vital to the neighborhood redevelopment process since it is often difficult to obtain operational funding through traditional financial sources for construction in distressed neighborhoods, according to the organization.
LISC Jacksonville was founded in 1999, and since then has distributed more than $12 million in the Jacksonville area. LISC Jacksonville raises funds locally from private and business donors that are leveraged with contributions through such sources as LISC National, national business and foundation grants and governmental programs.
LISC Jacksonville helps community development corporations and affordable housing providers with their technical expertise, grants and financing to reach the goal of creating safe, family-friendly neighborhoods that contribute to the community.
LISC Jacksonville works with 10 CDCs in Jacksonville.