Citi Pledges $60B for Affordable Housing Push

Citi is expanding and enhancing its affordable housing activity.

The New York-based banking giant on Tuesday rolled out a five-year, $60 billion commitment it says will help create and preserve 250,000 affordable units nationwide, alongside $50 million in philanthropic grants through the Citi Foundation.

The initiative, dubbed the Blueprint for Housing Opportunity, centers on debt and equity financing for the acquisition, construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing. Citi said the capital will flow into multifamily rentals, supportive housing and workforce projects in high-cost markets.

The bank also plans to continue backing for-profit housing startups through its Citi Impact Fund and to push for policy tweaks to expand tools like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

Citi, which has long ranked among the country’s top affordable housing lenders, said its Citi Community Capital arm financed more than $32 billion in affordable multifamily deals over the past five years, including $7.6 billion in 2025 that supported more than 35,000 units across 30 states.

The latest pledge comes as affordable housing developers grapple with elevated interest rates, stubborn construction costs and thinning equity for tax-credit deals. Even with recent adjustments to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, gaps remain in project capital stacks, forcing developers to lean harder on bank debt and soft funding sources.

“Housing affordability is one of the defining economic challenges of our time, and increasing supply is essential to addressing it,” Citi CEO Jane Fraser said in a statement.

Citi did not break out how much of the $60 billion represents new capital versus business it would likely have pursued anyway. Large banks have increasingly packaged multiyear lending targets as public commitments, particularly in sectors with strong Community Reinvestment Act implications.

In addition to financing, the Citi Foundation said it will deploy $50 million in grants to nonprofits working on housing access and financial stability. That includes an initial $1 million grant to the Center for Affordable Housing Lending, the research affiliate of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, to launch a housing supply research program.