Senior Program Officer, Affordable Housing Lending

What We Do

With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families.

Strategies We Pursue

• Equip talent in underinvested communities with the skills and credentials to compete successfully for quality income and wealth opportunities.
• Invest in businesses, housing and other community infrastructure to catalyze economic, health, safety and educational mobility for individuals and communities.
• Strengthen existing alliances while building new collaborations to increase our impact on the progress of people and places.
• Develop leadership and the capacity of partners to advance our work together.
• Drive local, regional, and national policy and system changes that foster broadly shared prosperity and well-being.

Since 1979, LISC and its affiliates have invested approximately $29.7 billion in businesses, affordable housing, health, educational mobility, community and recreational facilities, public safety, employment, and other projects that help to revitalize and stabilize underinvested communities. Headquartered in New York City, LISC’s reach spans the country from East coast to West coast in 38 markets with offices extending from Buffalo to San Francisco and in 2,400 rural counties across 49 states and Puerto Rico. Visit us at www.lisc.org

Position Description

The Massachusetts office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) seeks a skilled and experienced housing lending professional with a passion for strengthening underserved communities through innovative housing finance strategies to fill the position of Senior Program Officer for Affordable Housing Lending. The Senior Program Officer will help lead LISC Massachusetts’ strategic priorities related to building and preserving affordable housing and support efforts to decarbonize the state’s housing stock through direct lending, technical assistance to affordable housing developers, and statewide housing policy advocacy. This position reports to the local Executive Director.

This role will allow a talented professional to leverage a strong understanding of the Massachusetts affordable housing market, proficiency with multifamily housing finance and deal structure, and passion for learning and growing into meaningful work advancing affordable housing production goals through innovative and high-impact lending strategies.

LISC builds the power, capacity, and resources of local on-the-ground partners to address these critical issues. We use innovative lending tools, grants, technical assistance, and policy advocacy to support and enable solutions to the following strategic priorities:

• Affordable Housing: Financing the production and preservation of more affordable housing across Massachusetts to drive down costs and increase access to stable, healthy homes.
• Green Homes & Green Jobs: Decarbonizing affordable housing properties to lower carbon emissions, energy use, and operating costs, all while building pathways to careers in the climate economy through workforce training.
• Economic Opportunity: Helping historically marginalized entrepreneurs grow their small businesses to build a more equitable economy for all and close the racial wealth gap.
• Capacity Building: Growing the power, capacity, and resources of the state's community development sector to support local solutions to pressing challenges.

Responsibilities

Loan Origination, Underwriting, and Closing.

• Serve as the primary business developer and originator of loans for new and existing multifamily affordable housing, rental housing, homeownership opportunities, and occasionally commercial properties, small businesses, and community facilities.
• Underwrite lending transactions including, acquisition loans, predevelopment loans, construction loans, and mini-permanent and permanent loans, and bridge financing for new and existing affordable housing projects, including projects focused on decarbonizing housing units.
• Perform credit analysis, including analyzing borrower financial and operating performance, project financial performance, borrower management capacity, and project feasibility. Provide technical assistance to borrowers and prospective borrowers.
• Conduct due diligence and financial analysis, draft credit memoranda, present loans to credit committee, manage closing process with counsel, and work with Asset Management on post-closing borrower and project management.

Strategic Program Development

• Designing or refining debt and equity products to meet need and market.
• Collaborate with LISC’s Green Homes program staff on lending products focused on affordable housing decarbonization projects through high-performance green construction as part of LISC’s recent federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant from the EPA.
• Coordinate with municipalities and state agencies to advance LISC Massachusetts’ strategic priorities and execute lending activity utilizing strategic housing funds.
• Developing key partnerships and maintain relationships with other local community development financial institutions (CDFIs), national LISC teams, and LISC affiliates to develop new funding sources and advance key goals.

Business Development

• Work with Executive Director to build a pipeline of affordable housing lending opportunities with community development corporations (CDCs), other nonprofit housing developers, public housing authorities, and mission-aligned for-profit developers by managing inbound lending inquiries, building new partnerships, and leveraging existing stakeholder and partner relationships.
• Build systems and strategies for deploying and marketing products to drive loan and investment activity and community impact across the state, with particular attention to growing LISC’s lending activity in Gateway Cities outside of Greater Boston.
• Maintain internal relationships with LISC Lending and other national and local staff, and LISC affiliates, National Equity Fund (NEF), Broadstreet, and LISC Fund Management (LFM)to support the project pipeline and collaborate on New Market Tax Credit, Low Income Housing Tax Credit investments and lending.
• Stay aware of opportunities for loans in additional asset classes such as community facilities, educational facilities, commercial developments, and economic development projects.

Policy Leadership

• Work with the Executive Director to further develop, refine, and advance LISC Massachusetts’ housing policy agenda.
• Manage key relationships with public and private sector partners, including elected and government officials, nonprofits, private developers, and banks to advance said agenda.
• Work closely with state and local government to develop projects across all LISC Massachusetts’ lending and investment programs.

Reporting & Communications

• Prepare reports and presentations for investors, funders and other stakeholders as needed.
• Create content and strategic messaging regarding the impact of LISC’s lending and investment activity and otherwise support LISC Massachusetts’ communications channels and strategies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university required; or relevant work experience can be used as a proxy. Master’s degree in real estate, finance, urban planning, public administration or related field preferred.
• At least five (5) years of experience in affordable housing project management or development, housing lending, finance, community development or related field, with demonstrated experience in real estate development or finance.
• Familiarity with the Massachusetts housing market, including but not limited to Greater Boston and the Gateway Cities, along with familiarity with relevant city, state and federal government financing programs, such as bond and tax credit financing.
• Comfort, familiarity, knowledge of financing products such as predevelopment, acquisition, construction, bridge and permanent loans; lines of credit; tax credit programs, and equity investment.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple, complex transactions and programs at various stages and coordinate with multiple internal & external parties to meet approval and closing deadlines.
• Housing policy knowledge, particularly regional housing needs and the impacts across different Massachusetts communities; strong understanding of housing finance policies, strategies, and tools; familiarity with local, state, and federal housing programs and resources.
• Demonstrated interest in LISC’s community development mission, including in LISC Massachusetts’ sector-leading climate action work through the Green Homes initiative.
• Commitment to racial equity.
• Ability to work simultaneously on multiple tasks and projects, set priorities and coordinate with multiple internal and external parties to meet project guidelines and be a positive, solution-oriented professional.
• Excellent writing, financial analysis and verbal communication skills required, including public presentation of technical material.
• Full proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, particularly Microsoft Excel.

Work Arrangement 

Hybrid – LISC Massachusetts operates on a hybrid schedule. Greater in-person work may be required at the start of employment to support the strongest possible on-boarding process and professional development opportunities. 

Compensation 

LISC offers a competitive salary of $104,000 - $127,500 and excellent fringe benefits.

*Actual salaries may be based on several factors including, but not limited to, a candidate's skill set, experience, education, work location and other qualifications.

Our benefits include: 

Medical, Dental, Vision Coverage: Comprehensive health plans for you and your family's well-being; Disability Insurance: Long-term and short-term coverage for peace of mind; Retirement Savings: Secure your future with our 401(k) and 403(b) plans; Generous Holidays: Enjoy ample time off to recharge and celebrate; Vacation, PTO, and Sick Days: Take advantage of flexible time-off policies to maintain work-life balance; Tuition Assistance: Pursue your educational goals with support from our tuition assistance program; Referral Program: Earn rewards for referring qualified candidates to join our team; Professional Development Opportunities: Grow and advance in your career with access to ongoing training and development programs tailored to your goals.

LISC is an equal opportunity employer. LISC does not discriminate in employment on account of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), gender identity or expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military status or veteran status, unfavorable discharge from military service, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

We will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business.

LISC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND JUSTICE