JPMorgan Chase gives $5M grant for affordable housing

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - JPMorgan Chase on Thursday announced that it has awarded a total of $5 million to the Florida Community Loan Fund and New Jersey Community Capital to increase affordable housing in Central Florida.

The three-year investment will allow both organizations to develop affordable housing for hundreds of renters.

"Central Florida has one of the nation's highest rates of cost-burdened renters and the greatest shortage of affordable housing," said Mel Martinez, Chairman of the Southeast for JPMorgan Chase. "We're investing in this region because we see local leaders and organizations working together to come up with innovative ways to solve this problem."

Due to the lack of affordable rental units and other barriers, one in 50 families in Central Florida - including one in 17 children - experience homelessness each year, according to a 2015 report by Barbara Poppe and the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness. Many of these families end up living in hotels or motels, doubling up with other families, or in homeless shelters.

This new $5 million investment is part of JPMorgan Chase's $125 million, five-year PRO Neighborhood initiative that awards grants to collaborative partnerships that revitalize neighborhoods in cities across the nation that have been left behind by the recovery.