About CPC
By The Numbers
1974
Established
$15B
Invested
230k
Units Financed
Our Mission
CPC believes housing is central to transforming underserved neighborhoods into thriving and vibrant communities. CPC is a nonprofit affordable housing and community revitalization finance company providing flexible capital solutions, fresh thinking and a collaborative approach to the complex issues facing communities.
Our Approach
As a nonprofit multifamily lender and investor, we measure our success through our ability to make an impact on our three core objectives.
Our Story
CPC was founded in 1974 as a direct response to the chronic issues of property abandonment and blight facing New York City and its multifamily housing stock. These were the “bad old days” – when the New York Daily News, in response to President Ford’s refusal to bail the City out of its crippling fiscal crisis, ran its iconic headline in 1975, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Each year, between 20,000 and 30,000 rental units were being lost to abandonment, fire, or demolition, and communities were suffering.
We started by focusing a small amount of pooled capital on a few neighborhoods – namely Crown Heights in Brooklyn and Washington Heights in Manhattan. These targeted loans helped improve building quality and people’s living conditions, and helped prevent the blight in surrounding neighborhoods from destabilizing them.
In the 1990s we built on our successes and lessons learned, taking our unique expertise and business model into every region across the State of New York – working with municipalities and local stakeholders to help solve their most pressing housing and community revitalization needs.
Following the Great Recession (circa 2008-2010), we refocused on our mission and set out to diversify our product offerings to better serve our partners and to expand the reach of our impact. This included the creation an agency mortgage lending subsidiary, the growth of our industry-leading sustainability platform, and the launch of initiatives to empower black and brown developers and to bring diversity and equity to the real estate industry.
Today, CPC has a national footprint and is the largest Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in the nation solely focused on investing in multifamily housing. It is our culture of trust and respect, and our dedication to advancing the vision of our partners that allows us grow and succeed together.
Revitalization.
Making History
Since our founding in 1974, CPC has been blazing trails, building unique partnerships, and bringing our mission and impact to communities in need. Check out a few highlights that have defined our history.
FY 24 Annual Report: Mission in Focus
In the 2024 fiscal year, The Community Preservation Corporation elevated our impact, deploying $643 million to finance quality homes for more than 13,000 people. During a landmark year leading up to our 50th anniversary, CPC closed 80 loans and investments to finance affordable and workforce multifamily housing that will deliver enduring economic benefits to communities across the country.