Four of New York City’s five public pension funds have made a combined $300 million investment in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.
The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust is a fixed-income investment company, the investors in which include union and public employee pension plans and labor organizations. It invests mainly in government- and agency-insured and guaranteed multifamily mortgage-backed securities.
The trust invests in home construction and preservation that is conducted by only union construction workers. According to the comptroller’s office, the city’s public pension funds have invested $583 million in capital (including the latest $300 million) with the fund. It added that the one-, three- and five-year returns either matched or outperformed their benchmarks.
The program’s current pipeline is expected to create or preserve approximately 10,000 units in the coming years, with a combined total development cost of $4.1 billion, according to information from the comptroller’s office.
The investment is part of New York City Comptroller Mark Levine’s goal to invest $4 billion over the next four years.
“Programs like the HIT have a proven record of generating strong returns, jobs, and homes all at once,” Levine said in a statement. “This investment is a major step toward expanding our City’s crucial housing stock and tackling the rising cost of living.”
The four public pension funds—the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, the New York City Police Pension Fund and the New York City Fire Pension Fund—are now the trust’s largest investors.
The only city pension that did not participate in the investment was the New York City Board of Education Retirement System, which has not yet held a meeting on the subject, but is expected to discuss the proposed investment on a future agenda.
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Tags: affordable housing, AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, Marc Levine, New York City Comptroller’s Office