In 2019, the Purple Line Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Collaborative (Purple Line Collaborative) received a JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) PRO Neighborhoods award. With this grant, the Purple Line Collaborative focused on lending to develop and preserve affordable housing and small businesses along the Purple Line—a light rail line being built in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, to connect communities in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties. The Purple Line Collaborative comprises three community development financial institutions (CDFIs): Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), with support from its CDFI, the Enterprise Community Loan Fund; the National Housing Trust (NHT), which manages the Purple Line Capital Pool; and the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC).
Over the life of the three-year grant (three and a half years inclusive of an extension period), the Purple Line Collaborative has accomplished the following key objectives across its three priority areas:
Develop and expand partnerships, policy, and community engagement in the corridor. Over the course of the grant, the CDFIs have been active in building relationships with policymakers and other stakeholders throughout the corridor. These relationships have yielded numerous important policy wins, including increased public financial support for affordable housing development and preservation in both Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties and improved renter protections in Prince George’s County.
Preserve and develop affordable housing. The National Housing Trust deployed loans to create 394 units of affordable housing (although none as of March 2023), surpassing its goal of deploying loans to create 250 units of affordable housing. NHT has deployed loans to preserve 452 units of affordable housing, including 370 in year 3, which is below its stated goal of deploying loans to preserve 750 units of affordable housing.
Provide loans and technical assistance to small businesses. LEDC has preserved 241 small businesses, including 81 in year 3, surpassing its overall goal of preserving 210 businesses. In addition, 199 jobs were retained over the life of the grant, including 95 in year 3, nearly meeting LEDC’s goal of retaining 210 jobs. Finally, 24 small-business loans were disbursed (17 with JPMC funding), including four in year 3 and during the extension period, all with JPMC funding.
This report provides an evaluation of the collaborative’s progress toward its equitable development goals from January 2022 to March 2023. The Purple Line Collaborative’s JPMC grant was extended by six months through June 2023 to allow the CDFIs more time to reach their lending goals. In order to publish this report within the time frame of the grant, we did not capture metrics from Q2 2023, the second half of the six-month extension period, in our evaluation. However, based on conversations with Collaborative members, it is unlikely that lending, technical assistance or policy activities during the final three months would significantly change the conclusions made in this report.
As the PRO Neighborhoods grant winds down, all three CDFIs expect to remain active in equitable development efforts along the Purple Line corridor. The Purple Line Capital Pool is a revolving fund, meaning that NHT will continue to issue loans using funds that have been repaid by previous borrowers even after the grant period ends. In addition, Enterprise anticipates closing two additional deals along or related to the Purple Line corridor while also continuing to support a policy environment conducive to equitable development. Likewise, LEDC plans to continue its advocacy work and continue building on its expansion into Prince George’s County.
Produced in collaboration with Grayson Design Partners, the animated video Preserving Communities Along the Purple Line documents the Purple Line Collaborative’s efforts to help develop an equitable development pipeline in the corridor. This effort, which cuts across the CDFIs’ three key priority areas, aims to ease the equitable development process by making financing easier to access for equitable development projects.
