The good people at U.S. Bank want you to have affordable, quality options to call your home.
Recently, rolling out caught up with Zack Boyers, the chairman and CEO of U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance, to discuss what role his team plays in financing affordable housing. In 2022, U.S. Bancorp invested more than $967 million in low-income housing tax credit (LHTC) equity across 46 projects and provided more than $828 million in affordable housing lending, helping create more than 91,000 affordable housing units since inception.
What has U.S. Bank been doing to develop affordable housing?
At Impact Finance, we have an affordable housing business that invests and loans money to affordable housing developers all over the country. We enable those developers to build high-quality, multifamily housing, from coast to coast. We’re deeply committed to that business and that industry and are continuing to grow in that space.
Many young professionals are moving back home with their parents because of rising rents. How does Impact financing help them access and secure housing?
I will say that the predominance of what we do at Impact Finance is multifamily rental housing, so it’s not homeownership. Our wonderful colleagues in the mortgage department at U.S. Bank, have various programs to enable homeownership, but our focus is again, working with real estate developers who tap into various federal and state programs that allow them to create high-quality, affordable housing for folks to rent at very modest rental rates. That is a critical piece of what we think is the puzzle for folks who may have limited incomes and can get into a stabilized opportunity to sort of build from there.
What are some things renters should look for when choosing a housing option?
I think they should look for a place that’s safe and affordable that gets sustained long-term, and that there is an opportunity for folks to have all of their needs met very often.
The affordable housing we build comes with other opportunities, whether it’s wraparound services, workforce development opportunities, and so on. So I think you’re depending on what the needs are, sometimes it’s just a safe quality place to call home. And that’s a huge step in the right direction.
