Name: Marin Community Foundation
Price range: $

The Objective

Increase the supply of affordable housing in Marin.

The Issue

Marin is widely recognized as having one of the least affordable housing markets in the United States. With rents rising sharply, lower-wage earners face considerable challenges finding housing in Marin that’s affordable and located close to work, school, and transportation. The high cost of housing leaves many families in Marin with less to spend on food, childcare, and health care, and less to invest in savings. Seniors are priced out of the neighborhoods in which they have spent their lives. Healthcare workers, farm workers, bank tellers, teachers, and many others cannot afford to live in the community where they work.

Our Approach

We will continue to focus our efforts on early phase investments to develop, rehabilitate, or preserve affordable housing stock. We will broker partnerships between funders, developers, and government to expand the supply of affordable housing. We will seek to leverage funding from both public and private sources for affordable housing projects. Finally, we will use the MCF Loan Fund as a way to provide financing options to nonprofits that may not be able to access or afford traditional commercial debt.

Grantmaking

This initiative uses an invitation-only application process on an opportunistic basis. We encourage organizations with affordable housing projects in Marin to contact us in order to assess the opportunity for partnership.