A large part of the mission of LISC Greater Kansas City is related to creating and supporting affordable housing initiatives.

As Amanda Wilson, senior program officer, describes it, “We are an intermediary, so we oftentimes don’t do the work on the ground, but support and provide technical assistance and funding and financing to those organizations who are doing the work on the ground, while also supporting their work and our work through policy.”

LISC is heavily involved in the Community Development Corporation network, in which the organization provides grant funds to groups that are working on affordable housing programming. In addition, LISC Greater Kansas City helps with training programs for the CDC network, Wilson said.

LISC works with the CDCs on such things as financial management or strategic planning.

“And for our grants that we do, we work with them to find projects that are aligned both with what they’re doing and what we also want to fund. Most, but not all, of our CDCs in our CDC network do provide affordable housing, whether it’s through rehab or new construction or being asset managers [such as] landlords,” Wilson said.