Florida Community Loan Fund is pleased to share that Lotus Children’s Village was named the Real Estate Qualified Low-Income Community Investment (QLICI) of the Year at the 2026 Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits Community Development of the Year Awards.
Each year, the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits Awards recognize participants who strive for excellence in community development, affordable housing or historic preservation. The Community Development QLICI of the Year Awards go to community development entities that have made exceptional qualified low-income community investments in the past year.
With a 2023 financing transaction through FCLF’s New Markets Tax Credit program, Lotus Children’s Village built a new 71,280-square-foot multi-provider children’s education and resource center to help serve families in the existing 100,000-square-foot Lotus House Women’s Shelter in Miami’s economically distressed Overtown neighborhood. The expansion is poised to serve more than 2,500 children each year with trauma-informed, evidence-based programming.
Services at Lotus Children’s Village are rendered by 14 nonprofit providers offering: primary, dental and mental health care; early childhood education that includes tuition-free, full-day year-round preschool, therapeutic and trauma-informed services, youth development and enrichment programs; legal services for approximately 250 people annually; and community events such as holiday drives and food distribution.
The project preserved 55 jobs and created 37 new jobs with more than half being filled by low-income residents.
Florida Community Loan Fund is a proud NMTC partner of Lotus Children’s Village and was honored to receive the Novogradac recognition alongside our co-community development entities ESIC New Markets Partners Limited Partnership (Enterprise Community Investment) and USBCDE, LLC (U.S. Bank).
Learn more about FCLF and Lotus Children’s Village
www.lotushouse.org/lotus-house-at-childrens-village/
Pictured above L-R: Nelson Black, FCLF; Leah Rogan, Enterprise Community Investment; and William Carson, U.S. Bank Impact Finance
