Lotus Children’s Village, a children’s education and resource center in Miami’s Overtown, has been recognized as a significant, high-impact project by the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits Awards. In June 2024, the Children’s Village, along with Community Development Entities (CDEs) involved in the project, received an Honorable Mention in the Metro category for being an outstanding New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) project. The awards for QLICI (Qualified Low-Income Community Investment) of the year are announced annually at the Novogradac New Markets Tax Credit national conference. Nominated projects are judged on:
- Mission
- Community Impact
- Innovative Financing
- Achievement of Goals
The CDEs that provided NMTC allocation for the Lotus Children’s Village, and were also recognized for their part in this high-impact project, are:
- Enterprise Community / ESIC New Markets Partners LP www.enterprisecommunity.org
- Florida Community Loan Fund www.fclf.org
- US Bank Community Development Entity LLC www.usbank.com
The Lotus Children’s Village NMTC Project.
Lotus Children’s Village is a 75,000 square-foot multi-provider children’s resource center in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, designed to complement and expand services of the adjacent Lotus Village, a nonprofit state of the art shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness. With inclusive trauma informed, evidence based best practices, programming, therapeutic and social services and resources, the Children’s Village will help prevent children and families from experiencing homelessness, address and eliminate disparities in access to healthcare, legal services, education and creative programming, and break the cycle of violence and homelessness by healing, strengthening and enriching lives.
The new building, financed through the New Markets Tax Credit program, will be comprised of five floors housing classrooms, supportive services and resources for children and youth of all ages from within Lotus Village and the surrounding Overtown community. Lotus Children’s Village will feature educational support and programming for children and youth of all ages, and will include a satellite Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) clinic on site, as well as other community-based nonprofits offering an array of resources and programming for children and youth and their families in Overtown and surrounding neighborhoods. The co-located organizations will collaborate under an innovative collective impact model to develop and share best practices for the delivery of children’s services. The Lotus Children’s Village Project is of critical importance to the community of Overtown and cannot happen without New Markets Tax Credit investment.
The New Markets Tax Credit Program.
The New Markets Tax Credit, or NMTC, Program was established by the U.S. Congress to encourage economic development and jobs creation in distressed neighborhoods. The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund oversees the program.
Since 2003, the NMTC has provided investment and advancement opportunities for underserved communities across the country. Through 2023, NMTC allocations totaling $72 billion have delivered more than $135 billion in total project financing to over 8,500 projects, creating over 1 million jobs.
NMTC is a powerful and indispensable community and economic development tool of proven benefit that enjoys wide bipartisan support in Florida and nationwide.
To date, Florida Community Loan Fund has been awarded $451 million in Federal NMTC allocation authority, financing high social impact projects totaling $830 million in project costs and providing 8,400 jobs in low-income census tracts.
Learn more about FCLF and Lotus Children’s Village.
Learn more about the CDEs that collaborated on this project.
Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. www.enterprisecommunity.org 
Florida Community Loan Fund www.fclf.org 
US Bank www.usbank.com 
Read the announcement on Novogradac website:
