A coalition of private and philanthropic investors on Thursday announced the launch of a $20 million loan fund intended to jump-start $80 million worth of new affordable apartment construction in Jacksonville,
addressing what backers describe as a persistent gap in financing for developers rather than a lack of interest in building.
The Jacksonville Growth and Affordability Partnership Fund, known as the Jax GAP Fund, will provide low-cost loans to affordable housing developers to help close funding gaps in projects that rely on 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, along with a short-term bridge loan product designed to help developers move quickly on competitive properties in high-demand neighborhoods. The fund began accepting applications this week.
The effort is the product of more than five years of work by Northern Trust, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, who adapted a lending model first developed by Self-Help Ventures Fund, a nonprofit that has run five similar funds in North Carolina communities including Durham, Wake County and Chapel Hill.
Self-Help will administer the Jacksonville fund, pooling investor capital and issuing loans that developers repay over 20 years, allowing the money to be recycled into future projects.
Organizers said the numbers behind Jacksonville's rental market make the case for the fund.
Renters in the city have been considered cost-burdened — spending more than 30% of income on housing — since 2011, according to a news release about Thursday's announcement.
For households earning half the area median income or less, about $51,250 for a family of four, there are only 48 affordable units available for every 100 renters who need one, according to figures from the University of Florida's Shimberg Center for Housing Studies cited by the fund's organizers.
Developers, meanwhile, said they couldn't get enough public financing to build.
Duval County developers sought more than $40 million from the state's SAIL gap-financing program in 2025, but only about 20% of those applications were funded.
Northern Trust made the fund's largest commitment, anchoring it with a $10 million investment. The Jessie Ball duPont Fund added $5 million, and The Community Foundation and its donors, including several prominent local philanthropists, contributed $3 million.
Pinnacle Financial Partners rounded out the capital with a $2 million investment, which the bank's regional president, Bryan Taylor, called its largest ever in Jacksonville.
John Donahoo, who leads Northern Trust's North Florida market, said the bank saw an opportunity to bring a model it had watched succeed elsewhere to Jacksonville.
Organizers describe the $20 million pool as a pilot meant to prove the concept and attract additional investment — including potentially from the city of Jacksonville — with an eye toward scaling the model across Northeast Florida and beyond.
It is among the first funds of its kind in Florida to create a locally based source of gap financing specifically for affordable housing developers.
Isaiah M. Oliver, president of The Community Foundation, described the launch as "a starting place, not a finish line" in addressing the region's housing needs.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: New $20 million fund aims to unlock $80 million in affordable housing
