Dec. 19—Thanks to a $25 million donation, the leader of Santa Fe nonprofit developer Homewise Inc. says his group is now positioned to tackle the affordable housing crisis in an unprecedented fashion.
Homewise officials announced early Thursday in a news release they had received the gift from billionaire MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving organization, as well as a $10 million “impact investment” from the Anchorum Health Foundation in Santa Fe.
“Oh, it’s completely a game-changing gift,” said Homewise CEO Mike Loftin, adding that the donation comes with no strings attached and that Scott is singlehandedly changing the philanthropic world.
“We’re very good at incremental change, but having a chance to kick it up to another level is very appealing,” he said.
None of the funding included in the Scott donation or the Anchorum investment will be spent on Homewise’s operational costs, Loftin said, vowing that all of it will go to the folks who need help the most.
“It will be spent 100% on people,” he said.
According to the news release, the funds will allow Homewise to significantly expand its lending programs directed at first-time home buyers and at supporting loans to improve energy efficiency in homes.
Loftin said Homewise officials have not had the chance to decide how much of the funding will be directed toward each of those purposes, but he said they strongly relate to each other.
“We’re trying to build more and more new homes that are affordable and energy efficient,” he said.
Jerry Jones, the president and CEO of the Anchorum Health Foundation, said in the news release his organization’s vision for addressing the affordable housing crisis depends on collaboration.
“It is bold, visionary investments like these that will help increase access to affordable homeownership, improve the overall quality of life and transform our community,” Jones stated.
Loftin said an official from Yield Giving reached out to him a few months ago in an email that only hinted at what Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, apparently had in mind.
“It was very nondescript,” Loftin said. “It would have been an easy one to delete.”
Instead, Loftin said he followed up on the message and learned Yield Giving officials were eager to talk to him about a donation. It didn’t take long for the magnitude of the situation to sink in for him, Loftin said.
“It was like, ‘Oh, my God, they want to do something big,’ ” he said.
Loftin said neither he nor his organization had any contact with Scott or her philanthropic group before that initial email, meaning it was Yield Giving officials who likely discovered Homewise on their own and came up with the idea of making such a significant donation.
“She has a team, and they scan the country,” Loftin said. “They kind of find you.”
Noting New Mexico nonprofits are not typically on the radar of large philanthropic foundations, Loftin said he believes Homewise’s reputation for collaboration is what made the donation possible.
“I think it’s a testament to the people in New Mexico institutions and the fact that we work well together,” he said. “I think that’s what caught their attention.”
Loftin said even though Homewise has helped establish 7,000 households through its work on the affordable housing crisis since the organization’s founding in 1986, it still has a long way to go before the problem is solved in New Mexico. That’s what makes Thursday’s news so exciting, he said.
“I’m proud of the work, but it’s not like we haven’t lost ground,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic set the movement back considerably.
That may change with the $35 million in new funding, Loftin said, noting the donations likely will attract additional funding from other organizations.
“We’ve already had lots of conversations with our partners, and they’re excited about it,” he said.
The affordable housing crisis is not just a New Mexico issue, Loftin said, explaining that many other states across the country are in the same position.
“I think people are desperate for results,” he said.
While he’s unsure about what the federal response to the predicament will be, Loftin said he believes the money will allow Homewise — which already has projects totaling more than 1,500 new housing units in its pipeline — to make a big difference.
“In New Mexico, I’m very optimistic,” he said.
Homewise is not the first New Mexico organization to benefit from Scott’s philanthropy. In 2020, she donated $5 million to the Institute of American Indian Arts, following that move a year later with a nearly $3 million gift to IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
In March of this year, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, Cuidando Los Niños, Enlace Comunitario, La Semilla Food Center, PB&J Family Services, the National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project, the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies, NACA Inspired Schools Network and Keshet Dance & Center for the Arts all received $2 million donations from Scott.