Housing Trust Silicon Valley recently announced a $200 million fund to accelerate affordable housing across the San Francisco Bay Area.
With support from U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Mechanics Bank, and several community foundations and philanthropic partners, the Building Impact Initiative has a goal of creating and preserving 7,400 affordable homes.
The move comes as the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) celebrates its 25th year.
CEO Noni Ramos discusses the Housing Trust’s landmark fund as well as the state of the CDFI movement at a time when these organizations grapple with challenges, including potential cuts to federal programs that support their work.
How is this latest fund different from earlier efforts?
The Building Impact Initiative builds on more than two decades of experience in housing finance—but it also represents what’s next for our field. With this new fund, we’re combining philanthropic and corporate capital to create longer-term, more flexible financing that meets projects where they are, not where traditional structures require them to be.
We’ve learned a lot through our earlier funds. TECH Fund proved that high-capacity employers and philanthropists could come together to finance affordable housing at scale. The Apple Affordable Housing Fund helped us build the internal systems and capacity to provide construction to longer-term debt financing—stretching the limits of what a regional CDFI can do.
The Building Impact Initiative builds on that foundation, leveraging early investments from Apple and Yield Giving to bring patient, adaptive capital to projects that deepen affordability and broaden access across the region. It’s an evolution in both scale and purpose.
How is the Housing Trust evolving to meet the region’s housing needs?
Meeting today’s housing needs requires flexibility—capital that can deploy quickly, stay patient, and adjust to the realities of development timelines and local markets. That’s where we’ve been heading as an organization.
Our debt products now span predevelopment, acquisition, construction, and permanent financing, creating a continuum of tools that developers can rely on throughout a project’s life cycle. Through the Building Impact Initiative, we’re able to provide longer-term debt and provide financing that fills structural gaps in ways traditional lenders often can’t.
At the same time, our reach has expanded beyond the core of Silicon Valley. We’re now working more deeply across the entire greater Bay Area—from the Peninsula to the East Bay, the North Bay, and Monterey Bay regions—helping to ensure that affordable housing creation and preservation isn’t limited by geography or jurisdiction. Our evolution is about being both nimble and regional, scaling our impact without losing sight of local need.
What is the state of the CDFI industry today?
There’s never been greater recognition of how essential CDFIs are—and yet, the industry has never been under greater structural threat. Across the country, our work is being celebrated for driving inclusive economic growth, even as the systems that support us face uncertainty, from federal staffing reductions to questions about future funding and oversight.
In moments like this, it’s clear that our collective mission is what keeps the field moving forward. At the OFN [Opportunity Finance Network] Conference plenary, “The Policy Future We Must Shape,” I had the opportunity to share how regional coalitions—like the California Coalition for Community Investment—are helping us advocate, innovate, and build shared infrastructure. That’s how we’ll persevere: by standing together in our common purpose to expand opportunity and equity for all communities.
What is the biggest challenge for CDFIs going into 2026?
The challenge ahead isn’t just operational—it’s existential. We’re being asked to do more with less, at a time when it has become more complex and expensive to build housing while the cost of capital has also increased. The uncertainty surrounding the CDFI Fund has only underscored how critical it is for our industry to remain united and forward-looking.
At Housing Trust, we’re responding by attracting capital that’s not only flexible but also mission-aligned and long-term in nature. Through initiatives like the Building Impact Initiative, we’re designing financing tools that can withstand cycles and continue delivering impact even when conditions are uncertain. The CDFI movement was built on persistence; our next era will depend on collaboration and staying anchored in the communities we serve.
What is the future of the CDFI movement?
The future of the CDFI movement will depend on how well we harness our collective strength. Our greatest opportunity lies in working together—across states, sectors, and disciplines—to advocate for systems that reflect the scale of the need.
But what binds us together isn’t just our shared certification status—it’s a shared belief in the power of opportunity finance. CDFIs exist because we see what’s possible when capital reaches people and places the mainstream market has left behind. That conviction is what makes us a movement, not just a sector.
We’re already seeing that spirit of unity grow through coalitions and partnerships that amplify the voices of smaller and regional CDFIs, ensuring that policy decisions and funding reflect local realities. If we can continue pairing that collaboration with modern tools, data, and advocacy, the CDFI field will not only endure but lead in defining what inclusive, opportunity-centered finance looks like for the future.
What’s next for the Housing Trust?
Our focus now is on deepening impact through innovation—particularly in homeownership, policy, and systems change. Earlier this year, we released a 10-year roadmap outlining how we’ll deploy the $30 million Yield Giving gift to create lasting housing solutions. The plan goes beyond lending—it’s about testing new approaches to reduce the cost of capital, streamline financing, and unlock tools that make affordable housing more feasible across the region.
We’re exploring new forms of collaboration that align policy, philanthropy, and private investment to strengthen the entire housing ecosystem. That includes building partnerships to advance innovation at every stage of development and expand access to homeownership, especially for first-time buyers who are being priced out of their communities.
The next decade for Housing Trust is about thinking bigger than individual projects. It’s about driving systems-level innovation—so that every dollar invested can go further, reach deeper, and create lasting opportunities across the Bay Area.