Photo Credit: Dan Reed

An Enterprise press release issued last week announced a $5 million, three-year commitment to help expand access to economic opportunity for local residents and small business owners along the 16-mile Purple Line light rail corridor in the Greater Washington region. It reads:

The Purple Line project in Maryland’s Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties will provide more efficient transit and spark redevelopment around its 21 stations. As part of the JPMorgan Chase’s $25 million, five-year commitment to the Greater Washington region, from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, this new investment will create and preserve affordable housing and support small businesses along the transportation corridor.

Specifically, it will allow community organizations Enterprise Community Partners, the National Housing Trust and Latino Economic Development Center, with support provided by Enterprise Community Loan Fund, to provide targeted loan capital and resources for projects related to high-quality affordable housing and small business expansion. With this investment, the collaborative, called Purple Line Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, seeks to: 

• Create a framework to preserve/create 1,000 affordable homes and help attract new investments;
• Support more than 200 small businesses with small business loans totaling $900,000 and customized bilingual technical assistance, resulting in 300 jobs preserved/created;
• Pursue the goals of the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC), a group of public-private-community leaders – led by the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG) with community organizations, state and local governments, nonprofits, philanthropies and businesses such as Kaiser Permanente – with a collective vision and action strategy for vibrant economic and community development along the corridor.

HAND congratulates all of our members and partners involved! Read the full press release here.