Richmond Housing Renovation Program
On June 2, 2015, the Richmond City Council voted to issue up to $3 million in Social Impact Bonds for the purpose of rehabilitating and repairing abandoned residential properties in the City. RCF Connects facilitates the program from acquisition to sale of the properties. Families who are participating in SparkPoint Contra Costa, a local financial services program with 17 nonprofit partners, will be given the first opportunity to purchase the homes through the First Time Home Buyer program.
Social impact bonds are an emerging strategy which blends private investments with projects that generate a positive social impact. Investors purchase the bonds to fund programs designed to address social issues. If the program is successful and earns a profit as a result, the profits are used to repay the investors and help continue the work to tackle social problems.
Richmond’s Code Enforcement Department currently manages more than 250 blighted, abandoned properties, keeping them boarded up, cutting weeds, removing illegal dumping etc. This costs the City of Richmond approximately $7,000 per house annually.
The Richmond Housing Renovation Program has several goals:
- Create clean, safe and decent housing
- Provide opportunities for first-time homebuyers through SparkPoint
- Stabilize neighborhoods
- Increase neighborhood homeownership rates
- Reduced code enforcement costs and police calls for service
- Stabilize neighborhood property values
- Increase property tax revenue for the City of Richmond
Mechanics Bank purchased the entire bond series, providing the program with the capital it needed. By targeting the most blighted properties, the bond program will improve the quality of life and property values in the neighborhoods that most desperately need this sort of help. Due to the success of the program, Mechanics Bank has agreed to extend the term of the social impact bond for another 5 years, allowing the program to continue reclaiming abandoned properties.
To date, the Richmond Housing Renovation Program has achieved the following results:
- 19 properties completed and sold to first-time homebuyers
- $6.5 million in local spending
- $123,485 in permit fees paid to the City of Richmond
- $205,583 in NSP city property acquisitions paid to the City of Richmond
- $799,350 repaid in code enforcement liens and property taxes
- $350,000 reduction in Code Enforcement costs for the City of Richmond
RCF Connects has had great partners in this work, including private law firms and financial institutions—which have structured the transactions on a pro bono basis—to implement this innovative concept. The Richmond bond is a great example of a fourth sector initiative, in which private for-profit companies, governments and non-profits team up to tackle stubborn social problems.
The Richmond Housing Renovation Program and RCF Connects’ social impact bonds have been featured in the news multiple times. For examples please click here or here, or you can see our full Press page by clicking here.
For more information on our exciting Net Zero Energy Homes, please click here.
RCF Connects is using EPA Brownfields grants and leveraging funding through the city’s Housing Renovation Social Impact Bond to clean up and redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties within the neighborhoods of Belding Woods, Coronado, Iron Triangle, Pullman and Santa Fe into homes for low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers.
[Click this image below to read the entire Case Study]
