SDS Capital Group’s $150M Supportive Housing Fund (SHF or Fund), a first of its kind private equity fund to construct permanent supportive housing (PSH), has been awarded the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) Environmental and Social Governance Award in the Social Impact category for their private equity funding approach to addressing the homeless crisis in California.

PREA, considered one of the premier trade associations for the global real estate investment industry, for a third year has awarded the PREA ESG Awards. The 2023 PREA ESG Awards received submissions from 31 real estate funds.

“It is an honor to receive the PREA Social Impact ESG Award,” said Deborah La Franchi, Founder & CEO, SDS Capital Group. “When SDS launched the Supportive Housing Fund in 2019, our goal was to build permanent supportive housing more efficiently and at a quicker pace than traditional models in the marketplace. We’re proud to be providing more than 3,000 of our unhoused neighbors in California with quality homes while seeking market rates of return for our investors.”

SDS Capital Group, a pioneer in impact investing for over 20 years, manages over $1.3 billion in impact assets across six funds and finance platforms across the US. The SDS Supportive Housing Fund was selected as the winner of the Social Impact Award based on the new high-speed, low-cost financing model developed by SDS and the developer they are funding – RMG Housing. The SDS Supportive Housing Fund model uses private equity financing – with zero taxpayer dollars – for land acquisition or construction.

The key point of distinction of the SDS Supportive Housing Fund is that it invests exclusively in projects that are financially sustainable over the long term. This requires that the Fund’s cost per PSH unit in the Los Angeles area be below $250,000 — as compared to the $600,000 average in the current California market.

Greg MacKinnon, Director of Research at PREA, said: “PREA is tremendously proud to recognize this year’s winners of the PREA ESG Awards, across all five of the categories. All of the winners demonstrate that not only can real estate investors create positive environmental and social impacts, but that they can do it while generating competitive investment performance.” 

Source: SDS Capital Group