Tragically, COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges. Too little affordable housing is available-especially given the loss of tens of thousands of subsidized units throughout the UK in recent years-and too many landlords are unwilling to rent to women working to overcome social and economic challenges, even when they have the ability to pay. It offers the nonprofit partners an opportunity to purchase the leased properties at the end of the lease term, so each charity can build its assets and cement its ability to provide housing solutions to clients for many years to come.įundamentally, the Women in Safe Homes fund uses its innovative financial approach and a pool of catalytic capital to tackle a problem that the private real estate market cannot solve on its own. Those charities, in turn, lease the homes to their clients, offering women safe, affordable housing alongside other social programs to help them build stronger futures for themselves and their families.īy design, the fund also helps its nonprofit partners build a strong track record of property management and financial sustainability. This early catalytic capital will be blended with investment from other future investors, enabling the Women in Safe Homes fund to purchase housing units across the UK and then lease them to women-serving charitable organizations. Together, we are providing early catalytic capital that the co-managers can use to demonstrate this fund's economic and impact potential, by testing a promising model, reducing investor risk, and paving the way for scale and replication. This commitment advances our global initiative, the Catalytic Capital Consortium, and adds to commitments from colleagues at Big Society Capital and the Lostand Foundation. MacArthur Foundation made a $5 million (USD) program-related investment to provide equity capital to the fund. To offset this potential issue, the John D. While the fund presents a clear and compelling opportunity for positive impact, and Resonance and Patron Capital are experienced fund managers, the fund is new to the market. As one of the world’s first gender-focused real estate investment funds, it aims to raise £100 million to expand housing opportunities for women emerging from domestic violence, incarceration, homelessness, and other difficult life circumstances, while also building the capacity of nonprofit organizations that serve them. In the United Kingdom, the new Women in Safe Homes fund provides a powerful example of impact-driven financial innovation fuelled by catalytic capital. And we can play a role in making blended finance transactions less risky, helping unlock tens or hundreds of millions of dollars toward impact that otherwise would not be possible. We can bridge gaps for high-impact projects and funds, helping them build the track records and scale needed to attract conventional investors. Using flexible, patient, and risk-tolerant capital-catalytic capital-impact investors can fuel innovation. As each of us looks to do our part by investing for an equitable recovery, we need to remember that this is not just about how much, but also what kind of capital we put to work. The fund buys homes for women experiencing or at risk of homelessness becuase of domestic abuse, mental health issues or due to involvement with the criminal justice system.Īs the long journey toward pandemic recovery begins, impact investors are called to action on many fronts: small business development, healthcare access, stable housing, equitable education, racial and ethnic justice, climate change, and more. The fund launched with an initial overall investment of £15.3 million and has a target fund size of £100 million. MacArthur Foundation was one of the seed investors into the Women in Safe Homes fund, investing £3.7 million. MacArthur’s investment in the Women in Safe Homes fund was made through the Catalytic Capital Consortium, an investment, learning, and market development initiative conceived of by the MacArthur Foundation in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, and Omidyar Network to demonstrate the power of catalytic capital and to expand the reach of the impact investing field. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In her guest blog for Resonance, Debra Schwartz, Managing Director, Impact Investments at MacArthur Foundation explains how the Women in Safe Homes fund demonstrates the power of catalytic capital to fuel an innovative investment strategy with vital impact.
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