WASHINGTON, DC—Almost a year after JBG Smith and the non-profit Federal City Council announced their affordable housing program,  the REIT has held an initial closing of $78 million for the fund. The program is called Washington Housing Initiative and it has the goal of preserving or building between 2,000 and 3,000 units of workforce housing in the Washington DC region over the next ten years. Capital from private and philanthropic sources has gone into a fund called the Impact Pool and it will be used to bridge the gap between traditional mortgage financing and charitable contributions with mezzanine investments.

Investors include local developers and some of the country's largest banking institutions. In addition, JBG Smith also committed $7.6 million. “Having the support of so many institutional investors allows us to hit the ground running with a scalable, replicable, market-based approach to preserving affordability, preventing displacement, and strengthening inclusive communities,” says JBG Smith EVP of Social Impact Investing, AJ Jackson, in a prepared statement.

Founding investors include Bank of America, PNC Bank, SunTrust, JPMorgan Chase, BB&T, United Bank, Wells Fargo, Bernstein Management, Buchanan Partners, and Bob Buchanan.