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A New Report Highlights the Scale of the Global Affordable Housing Challenge

December 16, 2014
Andrew Ditton, Co-Head of Citi Community Capital

Recently, Citi hosted a meeting with members of the Partnership for New York City for a presentation by the McKinsey Global Institute to address the massive and growing global affordable housing shortfall. Invited participants included key academics, New York City government officials, major commercial and residential developers, and local affordable housing advocates. To kick start the discussion, senior McKinsey partners presented a recent study the Institute conducted on the affordability challenge. Of the many telling findings, perhaps the most important was also the most basic: affordable housing is infrastructure, a key component, not unlike power grids or transportation networks, of regional economic development strategies. Indeed, I would go a step further and say that the intelligent integration of infrastructure - including core assets like affordable housing, energy grids, retail services, education and healthcare facilities, and safe public spaces - fundamentally impacts the livability and desirability of modern communities.

 
or being forced into the informal market
 
in the city.
 
Citi continues to play a direct and important role in the effort to build and preserve more affordable housing in New York City. In July, Mayor de Blasio announced that a new $350 million fund had been created by the Community Preservation Corporation with the leadership of Citi. Indeed, as America's leading affordable housing lender, Citi has financed the construction and preservation of nearly 120,000 units of affordable housing in the last five years, putting $13 billion to work in communities across the country.
 
The new McKinsey report offers stark detail on the global challenge of affordable housing and provides a big picture blueprint that housing advocates, economic development professionals, and public leaders would be wise to consider. You can find it here.
 

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