25th Anniversary Reflection

25th Anniversary reflection

Workmen and a single backhoe toil in a hilly, rocky swatch of land in the historic hamlet of Scotts Ridge, New York. Their collective labor gives way to two, two-story buildings that blend quietly with the more expansive, stately homes in this wealthy section of Westchester County. Yet the future residents of this home are more modest in their income, and more vulnerable to the lingering excesses in the housing market throughout the area.

The Scotts Ridge project is one of the latest initiatives of A-HOME, a nonprofit involved in developing and managing housing for low-income seniors, individuals with disabilities and single parent families in northern Westchester. This specific project will provide housing for 12 very low-income seniors, creating individual suites and shared kitchen and living room space on each of the four floors.

For the Leviticus Fund, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in May 2008, A-HOME’s project is especially unique in that it marks its first $1 million loan.

“A-HOME provides high quality affordable housing for very low-income people in a high-cost area of Westchester, which is not an easy task,” explained David Raynor, Leviticus’ Executive Director. “At Leviticus, we are quite pleased that our first seven-figure loan has gone to A-HOME, an organization with a strong reputation and proven affordable housing development skills.”

As Leviticus commemorates its silver anniversary, it is mindful of those significant stepping stones it has passed along the way – steps that would not have been possible without the tremendous support of its Board and investors.

Sr. Pat Wolf, RSM, served as Leviticus’ Board President for the first nine years of the organization’s life. She remembers clearly how the seeds for a collaborative effort in community-focused investing germinated among religious organizations already active in the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment. Those religious orders sought to expand their corporate social responsibility efforts to include a more localized focus on economically poor residents living in their own neighborhoods, but found themselves needing to ‘create the wheel’, so to speak.

“There was really no model, so we went about visiting different people who we thought could offer some insights,” explained Sr. Pat. “We had kind of an intuition that if we could use our financial resources and invest them in people and set up a mechanism to do just that, it might be a contribution and a service to people who were economically poor. What we didn’t know was exactly how to do that.”

Good research, innovative thinking – and a healthy dose of faith – all combined to create the Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund in May of 1983 with 27 Member investors and $360,000 in investments. The new Fund’s Board of Directors provided not only oversight, but also hands-on work to screen and underwrite Leviticus’ first two loans in 1984.

Those loans – for a tenant-owned cooperative for low and moderate income people on New York City’s Lower East Side and a sheltered workplace for mentally handicapped adults in Nyack, New York – were responsive to a dire housing need, and empowering to the organization creating work training opportunities for the mentally disabled.

Insufficiencies in housing, education and employment were draining the vitality of economically poor communities in the area. Leviticus’ early Member investors understood this reality first-hand because many of these same religious groups were active with pastoral and social service ministries. These religious orders were also aware of their biblical mandate of stewardship – to use and share their resources on behalf of economic and social justice.

“Religious communities are really clearly committed to using their resources on behalf of the economically poor. That was very clear in the 1970s and 1980s, and it continues to be clear today even with their limited resources,” said Sr. Pat. “To establish an alternative investment fund where they could get some return on their money, but still make a huge difference in the lives of people, in a way that was empowering beyond grants and allowed them to work collaboratively rather than order by order, made a huge difference in their attraction to Leviticus.”

The social focus of Leviticus’ investments resonated not only with religious groups that joined as Member investors, but also with individuals that later joined as Associate investors in 1989. The pool of loan capital then grew even further with investments from local banks, which also were valuable sources of operating grants and technical assistance to both Leviticus and its non-profit borrowers. Over the years, both investments – and grants – have also combined to enable Leviticus to secure over $1.8 million in financial and technical assistance grants from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, a federal agency promoting the work of CDFIs nation-wide.

Br. George Schmitz, CSC, can appreciate in a personal way Leviticus’ growth trajectory, having served as the founding Executive Director for nine years. As Leviticus’ first salaried employee, Br. George recalls the sparseness of the young Fund’s office resources – three boxes of materials and a typewriter – yet great enthusiasm in networking with nonprofit groups struggling to address complex housing and other community-based needs.

“When Leviticus started in the early 1980s, the homelessness crisis in the United States was at its height,” Br. George explained. “We saw reports daily in the newspaper about people being homeless, people not having any place to go. I believe our Members were convinced that this was one way that we could help; that we could make money accessible to groups that could actually develop what was needed in terms of emergency shelters and transitional housing.”

Over the years, Leviticus has done just that – designating almost 50% of its $22.8 million in lent resources to address affordable housing needs of low-income individuals and families, and supportive housing for those struggling with mental illness, debilitating diseases like AIDS, or recovering from addiction.

Leviticus is also credited with its innovative approach to lending in the area of childcare, and has channeled over $4 million in financing to build, renovate and expand centers serving over 3,000 children.

For Leviticus, the childcare lending effort is a source of great pride – and also one of great learning. Through its work, Leviticus’ staff recalled that the vulnerabilities of being poor in the US were placed front-and center as families wrestled with the necessity of working, but also needing to safeguard their own children.

“We met some wonderful people who were running child care centers under very, very tough conditions, but you could see the impact that their work was having,” Br. George said. “To allow a mother to go to work and to know that her child was in a safe place and that she could come back from work and get her child and know that her child had had a happy day.”

“The banks were also very cooperative with us,” Br. George added, “because they too saw the importance of the childcare lending. They knew that it was an industry that had high risk and that they probably couldn’t get the loans passed through their own regulators, but they were very willing to support us.”

One of Leviticus’ earliest childcare loans was in Newark, specifically with Unified Vailsburg Services Organization (UVSO) to convert a former funeral home into a new childcare center to serve 75 children.

“The Leviticus Fund was the first lender in on the first pre-school center that was developed by UVSO in 1991,” explained Mike Farley, UVSO’s Executive Director. “It was a point where many lenders were not very willing to look at much of anything that was going to be developed by non-profit organizations. There was some interest in housing. But for community facilities it was very difficult to line-up the resources.”

In fact, the city of Newark is the focus of almost 60% of Leviticus’ childcare lending given New Jersey’s court-mandate to raise educational standards within economically poorer Abbott school districts. Leviticus has financed four early childhood educational centers for UVSO, with the most recent project expected to break ground in the summer of 2008. The $5.1 million project will create 210 childcare slots in the Ivy Hill section of Vailsburg, in Newark’s West Ward. Leviticus has approved $1 million in financing for this project, which joins together two other regional community loan funds within the overall financing resources.

One of the most significant aspects to UVSO’s early education efforts is what is happening to the children who have completed the program.

“The evidence of the effectiveness of the program is based on state-level testing and also on children who have graduated from UVSO’s program,” said Mr. Farley. “There are cases where children have skipped into first grade when they have gone into kindergarten in the local public schools. This is the strongest evidence in our view.”

In celebrating its 25th anniversary, Leviticus also recognizes the impressive accomplishments of the nonprofit organizations and child care providers who have been faithful borrowers over these many years. It is the success of our borrowers that has contributed to Leviticus’ own success to this point, and going forward.

“What I would say to the Board and its current Members is to be faithful to the vision, continue to develop the leadership of the Fund and continue with the discipline that Leviticus has always had,” counseled Sr. Pat. “Many funds did not make it. Leviticus has; it is celebrating 25 years. It is a wonderful moment.”


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About Us Who We Help Ways to Invest Ways to Borrow Make a Gift News & Events Advocacy	25th Anniversary reflection Workmen and a single backhoe toil in a hilly, rocky swatch of land in the historic hamlet of Scotts Ridge, New York. Their collective labor gives way to two, two-story buildings that blend quietly with the more expansive, stately homes in this wealthy section of Westchester County. Yet the future residents of this home are more modest in their income, and more vulnerable to the lingering excesses in the housing market throughout the area. The Scotts Ridge project is one of the latest initiatives of A-HOME, a nonprofit involved in developing and managing housing for low-income seniors, individuals with disabilities and single parent families in northern Westchester. This specific project will provide housing for 12 very low-income seniors, creating individual suites and shared kitchen and living room space on each of the four floors. For the Leviticus Fund, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in May 2008, A-HOME’s project is especially unique in that it marks its first $1 million loan. “A-HOME provides high quality affordable housing for very low-income people in a high-cost area of Westchester, which is not an easy task,” explained David Raynor, Leviticus’ Executive Director. “At Leviticus, we are quite pleased that our first seven-figure loan has gone to A-HOME, an organization with a strong reputation and proven affordable housing development skills.” As Leviticus commemorates its silver anniversary, it is mindful of those significant stepping stones it has passed along the way – steps that would not have been possible without the tremendous support of its Board and investors. Sr. Pat Wolf, RSM, served as Leviticus’ Board President for the first nine years of the organization’s life. She remembers clearly how the seeds for a collaborative effort in community-focused investing germinated among religious organizations already active in the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment. Those religious orders sought to expand their corporate social responsibility efforts to include a more localized focus on economically poor residents living in their own neighborhoods, but found themselves needing to ‘create the wheel’, so to speak. “There was really no model, so we went about visiting different people who we thought could offer some insights,” explained Sr. Pat. “We had kind of an intuition that if we could use our financial resources and invest them in people and set up a mechanism to do just that, it might be a contribution and a service to people who were economically poor. What we didn’t know was exactly how to do that.” Good research, innovative thinking – and a healthy dose of faith – all combined to create the Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund in May of 1983 with 27 Member investors and $360,000 in investments. The new Fund’s Board of Directors provided not only oversight, but also hands-on work to screen and underwrite Leviticus’ first two loans in 1984. Those loans – for a tenant-owned cooperative for low and moderate income people on New York City’s Lower East Side and a sheltered workplace for mentally handicapped adults in Nyack, New York – were responsive to a dire housing need, and empowering to the organization creating work training opportunities for the mentally disabled. Insufficiencies in housing, education and employment were draining the vitality of economically poor communities in the area. Leviticus’ early Member investors understood this reality first-hand because many of these same religious groups were active with pastoral and social service ministries. These religious orders were also aware of their biblical mandate of stewardship – to use and share their resources on behalf of economic and social justice. “Religious communities are really clearly committed to using their resources on behalf of the economically poor. That was very clear in the 1970s and 1980s, and it continues to be clear today even with their limited resources,” said Sr. Pat. “To establish an alternative investment fund where they could get some return on their money, but still make a huge difference in the lives of people, in a way that was empowering beyond grants and allowed them to work collaboratively rather than order by order, made a huge difference in their attraction to Leviticus.” The social focus of Leviticus’ investments resonated not only with religious groups that joined as Member investors, but also with individuals that later joined as Associate investors in 1989. The pool of loan capital then grew even further with investments from local banks, which also were valuable sources of operating grants and technical assistance to both Leviticus and its non-profit borrowers. Over the years, both investments – and grants – have also combined to enable Leviticus to secure over $1.8 million in financial and technical assistance grants from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, a federal agency promoting the work of CDFIs nation-wide. Br. George Schmitz, CSC, can appreciate in a personal way Leviticus’ growth trajectory, having served as the founding Executive Director for nine years. As Leviticus’ first salaried employee, Br. George recalls the sparseness of the young Fund’s office resources – three boxes of materials and a typewriter – yet great enthusiasm in networking with nonprofit groups struggling to address complex housing and other community-based needs. “When Leviticus started in the early 1980s, the homelessness crisis in the United States was at its height,” Br. George explained. “We saw reports daily in the newspaper about people being homeless, people not having any place to go. I believe our Members were convinced that this was one way that we could help; that we could make money accessible to groups that could actually develop what was needed in terms of emergency shelters and transitional housing.” Over the years, Leviticus has done just that – designating almost 50% of its $22.8 million in lent resources to address affordable housing needs of low-income individuals and families, and supportive housing for those struggling with mental illness, debilitating diseases like AIDS, or recovering from addiction. Leviticus is also credited with its innovative approach to lending in the area of childcare, and has channeled over $4 million in financing to build, renovate and expand centers serving over 3,000 children. For Leviticus, the childcare lending effort is a source of great pride – and also one of great learning. Through its work, Leviticus’ staff recalled that the vulnerabilities of being poor in the US were placed front-and center as families wrestled with the necessity of working, but also needing to safeguard their own children. “We met some wonderful people who were running child care centers under very, very tough conditions, but you could see the impact that their work was having,” Br. George said. “To allow a mother to go to work and to know that her child was in a safe place and that she could come back from work and get her child and know that her child had had a happy day.” “The banks were also very cooperative with us,” Br. George added, “because they too saw the importance of the childcare lending. They knew that it was an industry that had high risk and that they probably couldn’t get the loans passed through their own regulators, but they were very willing to support us.” One of Leviticus’ earliest childcare loans was in Newark, specifically with Unified Vailsburg Services Organization (UVSO) to convert a former funeral home into a new childcare center to serve 75 children. “The Leviticus Fund was the first lender in on the first pre-school center that was developed by UVSO in 1991,” explained Mike Farley, UVSO’s Executive Director. “It was a point where many lenders were not very willing to look at much of anything that was going to be developed by non-profit organizations. There was some interest in housing. But for community facilities it was very difficult to line-up the resources.” In fact, the city of Newark is the focus of almost 60% of Leviticus’ childcare lending given New Jersey’s court-mandate to raise educational standards within economically poorer Abbott school districts. Leviticus has financed four early childhood educational centers for UVSO, with the most recent project expected to break ground in the summer of 2008. The $5.1 million project will create 210 childcare slots in the Ivy Hill section of Vailsburg, in Newark’s West Ward. Leviticus has approved $1 million in financing for this project, which joins together two other regional community loan funds within the overall financing resources. One of the most significant aspects to UVSO’s early education efforts is what is happening to the children who have completed the program. “The evidence of the effectiveness of the program is based on state-level testing and also on children who have graduated from UVSO’s program,” said Mr. Farley. “There are cases where children have skipped into first grade when they have gone into kindergarten in the local public schools. This is the strongest evidence in our view.” In celebrating its 25th anniversary, Leviticus also recognizes the impressive accomplishments of the nonprofit organizations and child care providers who have been faithful borrowers over these many years. It is the success of our borrowers that has contributed to Leviticus’ own success to this point, and going forward. “What I would say to the Board and its current Members is to be faithful to the vision, continue to develop the leadership of the Fund and continue with the discipline that Leviticus has always had,” counseled Sr. Pat. “Many funds did not make it. Leviticus has; it is celebrating 25 years. It is a wonderful moment.”