Affordable Housing’s Leading Women

Meet 10 executives who are pushing the industry forward.

21 MIN READ

Alice Carr


Alice Carr has spent most of her career financing affordable housing across the country.

Alice Carr

Alice Carr

As she enters her 10th year with JPMorgan Chase and fourth as managing director and head of community development banking, Carr has helped grow the platform, including doubling the business and building out its historic tax credit investment business, which has allowed the firm to take on large affordable housing deals that also utilize historic credits. Carr’s team is working on two such deals with the New York City Housing Authority.

The firm traditionally focused on its construction lending platform, but it’s now ramping up its permanent lending capabilities, according to Carr.

“We want to use both on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet capabilities,” she says, noting that the goal is to have a full suite of complementary permanent products.

Carr’s group also will have a critical role in JPMorgan Chase’s big Path Forward initiative, a $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity and promote opportunity in underserved communities. The commitment includes financing an additional 100,000 affordable rental units in the next five years through new loans, equity, and direct funding that will help promote and expand affordable housing and homeownership.

“The Path Forward commitment is broad and across the firm, but community development banking will have an important role in bringing our tools to the table and expanding our work under that umbrella,” she says.

Carr’s path in the industry began as a loan associate at the Low Income Investment Fund, a prominent community development financial institution. She was later part of Citi Community Capital for 12 years, where she was managing director and Western regional director before joining Chase in 2011.

“The stars aligned for me when I took an affordable housing finance graduate class at the same time I was working as an intern at the Los Angeles Housing Department,” says Carr, who was interested in economic disparities and civil rights before she majored in American studies at Occidental College and then pursued a master’s degree in urban planning at UCLA. “The intersection between public policy and building something tangible that has such a tremendous impact on people’s lives not only checked the boxes for me, it was also thrilling.”
Carr has played an active role in the larger industry, serving on the boards of Enterprise Community Investment and Enterprise Community Loan Fund. She also chairs the board of the California Community Reinvestment Corp.

Based in Los Angeles, she and her husband have four children. The family recently started raising chickens.

About the Author

Donna Kimura

Donna Kimura is deputy editor of Affordable Housing Finance. She has covered the industry for more than 20 years. Before that, she worked at an Internet company and several daily newspapers. Connect with Donna at dkimura@questex.com or follow her @DKimura_AHF.

About the Author

Christine Serlin

Christine Serlin is an editor for Affordable Housing Finance, Multifamily Executive, and Builder. She has covered the affordable housing industry since 2001. Before that, she worked at several daily newspapers, including the Contra Costa Times and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Connect with Christine at cserlin@zondahome.com or follow her on Twitter @ChristineSerlin.

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