Senior Program Officer, Affordable Housing Lending

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.