Housing

New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC) is a nonprofit community development financial institution that provides financing, capital investment, and technical assistance aimed at transforming low- and moderate-income communities. Acting as a nonprofit lender, NJCC channels investments from financial institutions, insurance companies, and other socially responsible entities to a network of nonprofits. This funding ultimately creates affordable homes, steady jobs, quality education, and stronger urban communities.

NJCC has been a longtime pro bono client of the firm. In 2018, our lawyers assisted with two programs:

• The mortgage finance group structured transactions in the ReStart Program through which NJCC acquires distressed mortgages in bulk from the Federal Housing Administration for the purpose of keeping low- and moderate-income families in their homes. Since launching the program in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis, NJCC has helped nearly 1,000 families avoid displacement by offering them an effective combination of financial education and principal reduction. When the mortgaged properties are vacant, NJCC works with its subsidiaries to convert them into affordable homes. Nearly 800 affordable housing units have been created in all. In 2018, New York State invited NJCC to bring the ReStart Program to its urban centers, and the firm assisted in ensuring that the replicated project would conform to New York law.
• The firm helped build the legal architecture for the Address Yourself Program, through which NJCC partners with credit unions to meet the need for mortgage credit among low- and moderate-income families who otherwise have trouble getting loans. The initiative combines extensive pre-ownership credit counseling with access to low-cost mortgage products, and then offers financial counseling to successful home buyers throughout the life of their loans. In 2018, this model was extended to assist immigrant families in achieving their dreams of homeownership.