Rethink Real Estate. For Good.

Impact

How to be an Impact Investor.

Impact investing is rapidly increasing in popularity and there’s a growing interest from first time investors. Education is the key to feeling comfortable for those sticking their toe in the water.

In 2012 Dr. Stephanie Gripne recognized a need for trustworthy, un-conflicted investor education.  Back then she was the director of the Initiative for Sustainable Real Estate Development at the University of Colorado’s Lead School of Business. Money just wasn’t flowing into projects which were trying to make a difference and most investment advisors were trying to gain business or build a fund. Her hypothesis was that a non-profit could offer such education and might activate or accelerate investment where it matters.

If you’ve never heard of an accelerator, it’s like a boot camp for start-ups and small business. Their role is generally to identify, educate and invest in entrepreneurs. Stephanie thought that an accelerator might just be the way to educate impact investors, so in 2012 she founded The Impact Finance Center (IFC). It is essentially an accelerator. Founded as a non-profit academic center, its mission is to identify, train and activate philanthropists and investors to become impact investors. Those investors might include private foundations, community foundations, high net worth individuals, companies, family offices and a growing number of new investors.

The IFC offers one-on-one training as well as small and large group training. And for those who want to train themselves there are two hundred online classes and forty-seven recorded webinars. The Center also offer simulation activities where would-be investors can either pretend to invest or practice investing small amounts. Or they might learn how to invest as a group by pooling a little money. And for those who are already investors, the IFC can evaluate portfolios and investment advisors for governance and fees, evidence-based decision evaluation and impact.

The IFC’s education institute is only a part of their community infrastructure which they are building to be replicated, scaled and customized. Also in their arsenal are investor clubs, a marketplace for impact investing, a Who’s Who of impact investing, and partnerships with civil society organizations like community foundations and Community Financial Development Institutions.

Listen in to my podcast interview with Stephanie to find out more about the in-roads she is making.

Image courtesy of Impact Finance Center

Bridging the Gap.

“Even after retiring from the NFL, Seattle Seahawks players keep finding ways to give back to their community. Former offensive tackle Garry Gilliam and defensive tackle Jordan Hill, who have played football together for most of their lives, are uniting once again to create change in their hometown of Harrisburg, PA.” writes Samantha Sunseri for Yahoo Sports.

When Garry Gilliam retired from football, it was just the end of his first career. As a graduate with multiple degrees from Milton Hershey School and Penn State University, and with a thirst for knowledge and a passion to give back to his community, he launched a second career –  as founder and CEO of The Bridge. Not content with coaching youth football, his former colleague and good friend Jordan Hill also jumped on board as chief community officer.

With the Bridge they are building a ‘for-purpose’ real estate development company with the intention of acquiring unused properties such as malls, schools and warehouses and transforming them into inner-city mixed-use ‘eco villages’. Their focus is on cooperation, collaboration, and community. Sustainability will be achieved by residents being able to work, eat, learn, live, and play all in the same location. The first eco-village, in the former Bishop McDevitt High School, broke ground in late 2020 and they hope to open it to the public in 2022. The project will include affordable housing and spaces for entrepreneurs, entertainment, specialized learning and trade programs. Year-round food production is planned, using no-soil agricultural techniques such as hydroponics and aeroponics. 

The Bridge wants to address some of the challenges which many communities face and which have created systems of oppression for many Black Americans. They want to “span the tide…. that exists between the rich and the poor, the informed and the untaught, the entrepreneur and the everyday citizen.”

Listen to my interview with Garry Gilliam or read the original article here.

Images courtesy of The Bridge

Jumpstart desegregation.

The United States has an ugly history of displacement, exclusion, and segregation which continues to this day. Blacks continue to be denied the same opportunities that are given to whites for affordable rental, home ownership and wealth building. While many may believe that this state of affairs somehow occurred organically, the truth is that Federal, state, and local policies have all led to that displacement and segregation. Those policies continue to undermine the prosperity of minorities, stripping them of wealth and financial stability.

Just a few of the policies that led to catastrophic outcomes for Blacks were:

  • Policies to create outdoor space. In the 1850s thousands of predominantly Black residents were displaced to create Central Park in New York city. And in Atlanta, the oldest subsidized affordable housing project, where 30,000 mostly Black families lived, became Centennial Olympic Park.
  • Policies that discouraged racially diverse neighborhoods. The Federal Housing Administration justified housing discrimination by asserting that if Blacks bought property in white neighborhoods, then insurance values would fall causing loans to be at risk. There was no basis for this rationale.
  • Policies that ‘red-lined’ neighborhoods.  The New Deal, established by Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate the economy after the Great Depression, offered home-buying aid to Americans. But color-coded maps of every metropolitan area in the country determined where it was “safe” to insure mortgages. Areas where Blacks lived were ‘red-lined’ to indicate that they were too risky.
  • Policies that encouraged ‘white flight’. Post World War II, the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administrations focused on moving the entire white working-class and lower middle-class populations out of urban areas and into single family homes in all-white neighborhoods. This was the beginning of suburbanization and these suburbs came to ring all American cities. And it led to the devaluation of inner city neighborhoods where Blacks lived for many decades.

More recently there has been a shift in housing tastes when life in suburbia, with its gridlocked highways for the morning and evening commute, became less appealing. And so a shift in housing demand has emerged, changing the landscape once again. Wealthy and middle-class people began moving back into urban areas, leading to the redevelopment of previously blighted urban neighborhoods. This revitalization and resulting gentrification exacerbated racial inequality and caused further displacement as Blacks, unable to afford newly gentrified neighborhoods, had to leave once again.

In his book, ‘The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America’, Richard Rothstein explores the history of housing segregation in the United States. He argues that each of these policies violated the Constitution. Although he recognizes the efforts being made to remedy the situation, he believes we need a more coordinated, new civil rights movement. One focused on housing segregation, to jumpstart desegregation in a meaningful way.

Listen to my conversation with Richard.

Civil Rights March on Washington D.C. from Library of Congress, Public Domain

Housing in the middle.

Zoning in America. It’s a vast set of regulations which determines where and what you can build, how high and how close to your property line your building can be, how much of your land you can occupy, how much parking you need to provide and what type of tenant can occupy your property.

Once upon a time nuisance laws were the only way to regulate building disputes, with a judge deciding the outcome. In the early 20th century as cities grew and buildings became larger and taller, this process became unwieldy. The Equitable Building in New York changed all that. Completed in 1915 it was said to cast a 7-acre shadow over surrounding buildings and became the catalyst for the first comprehensive zoning code passed by the city of New York in 1916.

Skip forward one hundred years and we might just be back to where we were in the early 20th century. Zoning has become a behemoth. Many cities are using 50-year-old zoning codes which have had many bandaids applied to them over time, making them out-dated, complicated and far too long. Most importantly, over the last 50 years for the most part zoning has not changed sufficiently to reflect the sometimes rapid changes in our cities. There’s a shift in how people want to live. Sprawling suburbs no longer offer the kind of lifestyle that many Americans are looking for. They want a more sustainable lifestyle in a walkable urban context. And what’s missing is the housing typology, in between single-family detached and large apartment complexes, that’s required to fulfil this need. 

The idea of this ‘missing middle housing’ was framed by Daniel Parolek, architect, urbanist and the founder of Opticos Design. Missing middle housing was born just as the critical absence of affordable housing was becoming a major planning issue for cities nationwide. As a result, Daniel has become a high-profile advocate for zoning reforms that would allow for ‘the right kind of density.’ More people, less parking, walkable neighborhoods and broader demographics.

Listen in to my conversation with Daniel.

Image from Pixabay

The JUST Podcast.

The JUST Podcast tells the stories of the people working to build thriving communities rooted in justice.

In this episode, Derigging the Real Estate Game (Season 3, Episode 3), Eve Picker, founder and CEO of Small Change, is interviewed by JUST co-hosts Jes and Rob. Eve shares insights on the nature of exclusivity in real estate, and what led her to pursue Small Change.

You can listen here or wherever you stream your podcasts! 

Image from The JUST Podcast.

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