For the Community Investment Advisory Council, this has been a year of hard work and fresh possibilities. We’re happy to report that this year’s competitive Affordable Housing Program (AHP) applications were some of the highest-scoring we’ve seen, and included 16 new member applicants and 26 new sponsor applicants. Also, as of November, we’ve assisted more than 2,850 homebuyers through our Downpayment Plus^® (DPP^®) programs. Below, we’d like to share a few other highlights from 2016, as well as a preview of developments we expect to see in 2017.

Perhaps this year’s most exciting event was the first-ever joint meeting of the Advisory Council and the full Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. For two days in June, these teams combined to discuss how our Community Investment programs are used, these programs’ successes and challenges, and their importance for the communities we serve—now and in the future. We focused on community lending, how partnerships between bank members and community organizations can be strengthened, and especially how banks can work with community development financial institutions and community development corporations to bring capital and credit to underserved markets. Feedback from the the event was overwhelmingly positive, and we plan to hold another joint meeting in 2017. In the meantime, we’ll be looking for ways to explore the unique possibilities of this new collaboration and build on this year’s progress.

Many of you are aware that the Advisory Council has been working with Community Investment Officer Suzi Thackston and other Bank leadership to provide feedback on the potential modernization of the Affordable Housing Program regulations. This presents an opportunity for the Federal Home Loan Banks to collectively highlight what has worked well and where there are opportunities for improvement. We’re seeing great progress, and when the proposed rule is issued, the Advisory Council will work closely with the Board of Directors and staff members to craft a response.

We’d like to note that, with the strong support of Bank staff, we’re continuing to develop recommendations to ensure that our competitive AHP scoring criteria stay relevant to emerging needs in affordable housing. This summer, a subcommittee of the Advisory Council formed to study the scoring guidelines, this time paying special attention to homeownership (last year, we focused on preservation). The clarifications and adjustments we recommended were not dramatic, but we hope they will be helpful to those applying in the homeownership category in 2017 and beyond.

Lastly, we were pleased to welcome two new partners to the Community First^® Fund in 2016—Community Reinvestment Fund, USA, and Accion Chicago. It is an honor to support these organizations’ work in local communities and economies, and we look forward to watching their impact grow in years to come.

In service,

Diane Schobert, Chair

Mary Patoka, Vice-Chair