Young Entrepreneur Creates Social Impact Fund To Create Sustainable And Affordable Housing
Young Entrepreneur Creates Social Impact Fund To Create Sustainable And Affordable Housing
BY KATHERINE NEWMAN
In 2016, AJ Patton left his job to create 548 Capital, LLC and to focus on creating solar-powered affordable housing on the south and west sides of Chicago. Since then, Patton has built a network of local partners who are working to bring his vision to life. Through 548 Capital, LLC, Patton recently created the Solar Chicago Fund and began construction on their first sustainable housing site in Auburn Gresham.
“What we care about is how intentionally all of this happens. This is not just about housing, we could go in and invest some money and get some money out that’s a little bit more but what folks on our side of the table are thinking about is the trickle-down. We are thinking about who gets those jobs, how affordable the buildings are, how sustainable the buildings are, and what the quality of life is like for the people living in those buildings,” said AJ Patton, managing partner and CEO of 548 Capital, LLC.
Growing up, Patton lived in public housing and remembers a time that his mother received a $400 electric bill that she couldn’t pay during a time when they also had a hole in their roof that she could not afford to fix. Patton said he remembers having to boil water to take a bath on the weekend in between taking showers at school during the week.
It is this experience that inspired Patton to return to Chicago’s most disinvested neighborhoods, like Auburn Gresham, Englewood, and Austin and find a meaningful way of investing into the community.
“Being from Section 8 housing, seeing how a lot of families are treated, still having a lot of family that live in these neighborhoods, and having deep roots in these neighborhoods has shown me how a lot of things play out for these people,” said Patton. “I’ve also seen the way that investments are made and I know the kind of money that is moving so I know that if we could get even just a small percentage of that money and direct it to these neighborhoods correctly and intentionally, the right way, then we could shift the narrative around these neighborhoods.”
Recently, Patton and 548 Capital, LLC created the Solar Chicago Fund which is an investment fund that other institutions can invest in and will be used to redevelop 3,000 units of affordable housing on the south and west sides of Chicago.
“We are buying multi-family buildings with a minimum of six units. We are going throughout the south and west side to buy those buildings that are boarded up and renovating them and adding solar power and then we are leasing them back out at an affordable rate,” said Patton.
Patton also said that he is committed to hiring local contractors and tradespeople from the neighborhoods they are working in for these projects.
To learn more about the work that 548 Capital is doing visit 548capital.com.
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