SP Investment Fund, LLC, a Southern California-based company in the affordable housing sector, has undertaken numerous residential investments in conjunction with affiliates focused on improving the lives of those in their communities. SP Investment Fund’s investments in affordable housing have been focused on housing serving seniors and families with low and very low incomes.
The SP website features access to a number of related resources, including the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Building Healthy Places Initiative. The ULI report, titled Retail in Underserved Communities, examines the access of people with limited means to a full range of retail offerings in an era of e-shopping. One major issue in underserved urban areas is that investors tend to focus on larger retail centers, and the small businesses that inhabit space-restricted urban-core sites often are out of reach of large-scale distribution networks.
At the same time, the shopping centers that do exist in underserved communities have often lost major anchor chains, such as grocery stores and department stores. Sales volume tends to decline at these centers and members of the local community with mobility issues are the first to suffer, due to a lack of ready access to retail choices.
The report points to a need to create coordinated urban revival strategies that encompass housing, retail access, and other aspects of well-being, such as health care. One success story is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where coordinated efforts by leaders of the East Liberty community attracted new retail tenants such as Home Depot and Whole Foods, and redefined the area as one with accessible shopping for local residents.
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