Mayor Lee announced the San Francisco Community Investment Fund was awarded $45 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation to support private investment in non-profits and businesses that directly serve San Francisco’s most economically distressed, low-income communities. 

“We must ensure that the city’s emerging non-profits and businesses secure the financing they need to succeed to build and serve our communities,” said Mayor Lee. “These tax credits allow these businesses and nonprofits to start, stay, and grow in San Francisco and create local jobs and opportunities that help our city thrive.”

The $45 million in newly awarded funding from the New Markets Tax Credit program will help San Francisco businesses access flexible financing to support areas of manufacturing, retail, healthcare, food security, and affordable community and non-profit spaces. This funding, as it is intended to be disbursed across various projects in the city, will serve as a catalyst for further private investments in these neighborhoods, create permanent local jobs, and provide greater access to community facilities and commercial goods and services. It will be allocated to projects in qualified neighborhoods throughout San Francisco over the next calendar year. The recent funding will build upon the existing projects and priorities of the SFCIF to address the critical needs of the city, create local and permanent jobs, and encourage investment in low income communities.

The New Markets Tax Credit program is a federal program administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in effort to attract targeted investment in historically underinvested communities, creating quality jobs and materially improving the lives of residents of low-income neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin, South of Market, Mission, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, Bayview Hunters Point, and Treasure Island.  The program targets construction and capital improvement projects in low-income neighborhoods that deliver strong community outcomes including job creation for low-income people, commercial and community services, healthy foods, environment sustainability, and flexible lease rates. In 2010, with the eventual loss of state redevelopment funds, the City’s then-Redevelopment Agency established the San Francisco Community Investment Fund (SFCIF) to enhance the City’s existing financial resources.

Since its inception, the SFCIF has successfully received and deployed $80 million in tax credit to businesses and non-profits such as College Track, a college-preparatory program for low-income high school students in Bayview, and the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, which supplies restaurants, businesses, and residents located throughout San Francisco with fresh and healthy produce. Over the past five years, the SFCIF has also deployed the funding to incentivize the construction of projects such as SF Jazz and the Boys & Girls Club San Francisco in Western Addition, and the ACT Strand Theatre on Central Market. 

“This New Markets Tax Credits award will create a pathway for new grocery stores, childcare facilities, non-profit offices, and community centers in the San Francisco’s most high-need neighborhoods,” said Brian Strong, President of the SFCIF Board of Directors. “This additional resource will allow local businesses and non-profits to activate underutilized buildings in historically blighted areas of the city, create local jobs, and sustain community services that will last for decades.” Mr. Strong also serves as the City’s Director of Capital Planning Program, which reviews and prioritizes San Francisco’s capital planning efforts across the City.

The recent funding will build upon the existing projects and priorities of the SFCIF to address the critical needs of the city, create local and permanent jobs, and encourage investment in low income communities.

For more information on the New Markets Tax Credit Program, go to: www.cdfifund.gov