The Brief

The Brief: Jonathan Rose’s plans for a ‘community of opportunity’

ImpactAlpha · October 14, 2025
Credit: ImpactAlpha

Greetings Agents of Impact! 

Take note: Our weekly LP/GP newsletter is moving to Wednesdays. 

In today’s Brief:

  • Adding community services to affordable housing in East Harlem
  • Catalytic capital for Cleveland’s new homeowners
  • Making mortgages accessible in Latin America

‘Community of opportunity’: With Sendero Verde, Jonathan Rose’s affordable housing vision comes to life in East Harlem. Surrounded by public housing projects on a block of East Harlem is a big new apartment complex with a facade that screams luxury. But behind the sleek exterior is Sendero Verde (Spanish for “green path”), a permanently affordable development for formerly homeless individuals and low- to moderate-income residents. Some pay as little as $498 a month for a studio apartment in upper Manhattan. ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus visited the “community of opportunity,” which includes a charter school on the premises, a family center, a computer lab, a medical screening facility, a fitness center, a community kitchen, and supportive social services. “We are using the building of physical spaces and our investment funds to bring social, health and education programs to our residents,” explains Jonathan Rose, founder of Jonathan Rose Companies, which developed the 750,000-square-foot complex with L&M Development Partners and Acacia Network. “For me, the building of communities and the building of affordable housing – those are the vehicles to achieve the goals of racial justice, social equity and healing the environment.” 

  • Neighborhood fabric. The $446 million development is a demonstration of the emerging wisdom that affordable, mixed-income housing with social support and environmental sustainability creates not only attractive communities, but risk-adjusted commercial returns for investors (see, “Why affordable rental housing Is a perfect asset class for impact investors”). The benefits include lower vacancy rates, higher retention of tenants, and more on-time rent payments. Energy and water efficiency investments and other design elements also reduce operating costs. The East Harlem complex, between 111th and 112th streets, is the largest residential housing project in the US built to “passive house” energy efficiency standards. Some of the children of Sendero Verde attend the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy II elementary school, a 51,000-square-foot charter school on the property’s ground floor. The school features a cafeteria and full-sized gym, music and art rooms and other classrooms.
  • Institutional grade. Incomes for residents at Sendero Verde range from $19,600 to $192,600 per year. “It’s about treating everybody with respect and creating a platform for families to thrive, and their communities to thrive, and their cities to thrive,” says Rose. Jonathan Rose Cos. raised $660 million this summer for its sixth affordable housing preservation fund from pension funds, endowments, family offices, as well as banks and foundations. Institutional investors see affordable housing “as a core real estate investment, something that is low risk, that doesn’t provide outsized returns, but matches up well against their assets and provides predictable income,” Jeff Brenner of Impact Community Capital said on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact podcast last year.
  • Situational analysis. The Trump administration is using the two-week-old government shutdown as a pretext to lay off thousands of federal workers and axe programs that do not enjoy the president’s favor. According to Opportunity Finance Network, the entire staff of the Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund have received layoff notices, effectively shuttering the office that awards New Markets Tax Credits and grants to community development financial institutions to make loans in low-income, tribal and other underserved communities. With bipartisan support, the CDFI Fund staved off an earlier shutdown threat in March (see, “Threat to CDFI Fund gives community lenders a chance to flex bipartisan support”). Both the New Markets Tax Credit and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit were expanded and made permanent in the Republican’s tax and budget bill this year.
  • Keep reading and see the photos, “‘Community of opportunity’: With Sendero Verde, Jonathan Rose’s affordable housing vision comes to life in East Harlem,” by Roodgally Senatus.

Dealflow: Inclusive Communities

LISC fund gives renters a chance to become homeowners in Cleveland. The community development financial institution has been supporting housing affordability in the US for more than 45 years. Its Cleveland-based group has originated the first two loans from a fund designed to build affordable housing in the city and give renters a chance to buy the homes they live in. The Cleveland Housing Investment Fund, or CHIF, provided a $2 million loan to CHN Housing Partners for its Parkside Homes single-family home development in East Cleveland, a predominantly Black neighborhood with one of the lowest median family income levels in the US. The $22.2 million development is being built on vacant lots. CHN plans to give the property’s renters the option to buy their homes outright when its 15-year Low Income Housing Tax Credit compliance period expires. “Fifty-five families will move into brand new, high-quality homes in the coming months and begin their homeownership journey,” said CHN’s Kevin Nowak. 

  • Housing crisis. CHIF was launched in March to improve affordable housing access in a city with some of the sharpest rent increases in the US. It provides loans and equity-like financing of $1 million and $5 million for small- and mid-sized affordable housing developments that struggle to find other sources of financing. LISC is aiming to create up to 3,000 new rental units for individuals and families earning less than 80% of the Cleveland area’s median income. LISC wants renters to have the opportunity to buy at least 100 of those units.
  • Senior housing. CHIF’s second deal is a $2 million construction loan for Volker Development’s Walton Apartments complex in Clark-Fulton, a majority-Latino neighborhood in West Cleveland. The 52-unit complex is for renters aged 55 and over. Between the two projects, “we’re adding more than 100 homes and demonstrating how flexible capital can close financing gaps, remove barriers to opportunity, and accelerate housing solutions neighborhood by neighborhood,” said LISC Cleveland’s Kandis Williams. CHIF is deploying the $38 million it has raised from the Cleveland city government and KeyBank toward its fundraising goal of $100 million.
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ALIVE Ventures backs Creditú to offer mortgages to first-time homebuyers in Latin America. Santiago, Chile-based Creditú provides flexible mortgages and home-improvement loans to low- and middle-income families in Latin America using alternative and AI-based underwriting. “Latin America’s housing deficit is massive, and too many lenders look away,” said Creditú’s David Muñóz. The company has originated about 12,000 mortgages and downpayment assistance loans totaling $800 million to homebuyers in Chile, Brazil and Peru. It focuses on first-time home buyers and home financing in social housing properties. Creditú raised $6 million in Series A financing led by ALIVE Ventures, Acumen’s Latin America-focused impact fund, which invested via its $80 million second fund. L4 Venture Builder also participated.

  • Inclusive fintech. Strict banking requirements, high downpayment requirements, lengthy approval processes, and financial exclusion of informal workers have excluded millions of people in Latin America from homeownership. “Informal workers are often left out because banks depend on formal income proofs,” ALIVE’s María Pia Morante explained. By looking at alternative risk factors, Creditú says it’s able to reach customers traditional lenders exclude, and approve loans nearly four times faster. More than 55% of its approved borrowers last year were women and 14% were immigrant families. Other fintech companies are tackling similar barriers across the region. Vinte is building sustainable and affordable housing for middle-income families in Mexico, while Masaki provides bridge financing for small developers and households building affordable homes in Brazil. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Austin-based Base Power raised $1 billion in a Series C equity round to manufacture and install residential battery systems to keep pace with electricity demand and ease grid pressure in Texas. The list of backers includes Addition, Andreessen Horowitz and Valor Equity Partners. (Canary Media)
  • Mission Driven Bank Fund, armed with $170 million from banks and corporations to help close the racial wealth gap, made its 11th investment, supporting Warsaw Federal Savings and Loan in Ohio. (Mission Driven Bank)
  • Private equity firm GEF Capital Partners committed $50 million to Membrane Group India for industrial water and wastewater treatment. GEF is investing through its third South Asia Growth Fund, which backs companies working on climate change mitigation solutions in the region. (Economic Times)
  • Fintech venture Zippi secured 85 million reais ($15.9 million) from Itaú, Verde Asset and other investors to provide credit access to Brazil’s small businesses. (Latam Fintech)
  • Infrastructure investor Generate Capital closed an $85 million tax equity commitment from KeyState to finance a portfolio of eight community solar projects in New York and Illinois. (Generate Capital)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Join ImpactAlpha at these upcoming partner events:

Impact Capital Managers recruits Ellie Rodgers, formerly with 60 Decibels, as senior manager of impact management and research… Clean Energy Ventures welcomes four new university fellows: Harvard Business School’s Elinore Beitler and Sankalp Shanker, Boston University’s Naved Anwar, and MIT’s Sofia Karagianni… Collide Capital adds Stephanie Simon, previously with Practical Venture Capital, as director of platform, and Andrew Peng, formerly with Alpaca VC, as a principal… CalPERS has an opening for a sustainability and ESG analytics specialist in Sacramento, Calif.

Johnson & Johnson is looking for a director of employee engagement for social impact in New Jersey… Working Capital Fund is on the hunt for a senior VC analyst in San Francisco… Also in San Francisco, Anthropic is recruiting a corporate finance and strategy lead…  The Nature Conservancy is hiring a finance and compliance director… Rockefeller Foundation seeks a ​​senior associate of US economic opportunity in New York… Mercer is looking for a principal of values-aligned and sustainable investments in Boston.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Oct. 14, 2025