By Leah Foreman – Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal | A new $20 million private-philanthropic fund is taking aim at one of Jacksonville’s persistent affordable housing hurdles: finding enough capital to get projects across the finish line.
Five private and philanthropic partners have launched the Jacksonville Growth and Affordability Partnership Fund, or Jax GAP Fund, which will provide low-cost loans to affordable housing developers facing gaps in their financing packages.
The fully capitalized pilot fund is expected to help finance an estimated $80 million in new affordable multifamily rental housing in Jacksonville and is designed to become a model that could eventually attract additional private and public investment across Northeast Florida.
“If we can get about four to five deals out of this $20 million I think it’ll be a wild success,” Chris Crothers, director of impact investing at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, told the Business Journal.
The fund, formally launched Aug. 20, is the culmination of more than five years of work by private and nonprofit partners looking for ways to address Jacksonville’s shortage of affordable rental housing.
Developers using the fund will primarily be able to fill financing gaps in projects relying on 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, or LIHTCs, as well as other affordable housing developments. The fund also will offer short-term acquisition bridge financing intended to help developers compete for property in high-demand neighborhoods.
The need is significant. Duval County developers sought more than $40 million in gap financing through the Florida Housing Finance Corp.’s State Apartment Incentive Loan program in 2025, but only 20% of those projects received funding, according to the Jax GAP Fund partners.
The new fund is not intended to replace SAIL funding, Crothers said, but rather supplement existing state resources and bring another source of capital into affordable housing projects.
“We believe it’s going to be a replicable model for not only private investors who are on the sideline who like to invest in affordable housing but really haven’t figured out how to get into it yet, but also a way that we’re going to be able to work with the public sector and create public-private partnerships that’s going to be able to bring more capital off the sidelines and bring it into financing for affordable housing,” Crothers said.
Northern Trust Wealth Management provided the largest investment, committing $10 million. The Jessie Ball duPont Fund contributed $5 million, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and its donors invested $3 million and Pinnacle Financial Partners contributed another $2 million.
The Community Foundation also is providing first-loss capital for the fund.
“At Pinnacle we believe strong communities are built on access to opportunity,” said Brenda Bellard-Harris, community engagement advisor for Pinnacle. “By providing capital to support affordable housing development, we’re creating opportunities for more families to achieve stability, build wealth and thrive for generations to come.”
Northern Trust initially identified the model, which is administered by Self-Help Ventures Fund and has been used for five similar funds in North Carolina. Northern Trust then signed on as the Jacksonville fund’s lead investor, while the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida worked to tailor the model to Jacksonville and make it scalable.
Self-Help Ventures Fund will administer the Jax GAP Fund, handle applications and underwriting and make loans to developers.
The fund is structured around a 20-year period, with five years to deploy the capital and 15 years tied to LIHTC compliance. As developers repay their loans, Self-Help will return capital to investors, creating the opportunity for that money to be reinvested in the community.
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