Volume 98: How a $500K Investment Is Lifting Philadelphia Families Out of Poverty

Michelle Carrera Morales has an ambitious life goal. 

“I believe that my purpose is to help lift as many people as I can out of poverty during my lifetime,” she says, explaining that her upbringing in the projects of Puerto Rico inspired her to ensure that every kid living in poverty had the same opportunities to thrive that she did. 

That conviction is what brought her to Xiente—a Philadelphia community development organization that helps families overcome the barriers of poverty through education, housing, workforce development, and financial tools—where she served as CEO for six years before stepping down in 2026.

And it’s what’s driving one of the more exciting experiments in the city’s affordable housing ecosystem—one that wouldn’t be possible without impact investment.

A new approach to affordable housing, backed by impact investors

Mi Casa is a pilot affordable housing program in the Norris Square neighborhood of Philadelphia rooted in Xiente’s theory of change that, in order to move a family from poverty to prosperity, you need a holistic approach. Every unit comes paired with wraparound economic mobility support, helping families build financial stability, job skills, and social connections simultaneously.

“I think that, if we’re going to solve the issues that we have in our society, at some point we need to say, ‘I have enough that I’m willing to invest in someone else’s progress.’”

Critically, these aren’t the same as Section 8 vouchers. Traditional affordable housing programs come with an unintended consequence: earn too much, and you lose your subsidy, which can ultimately prevent families from working their way out of poverty. While the tenants of Mi Casa units start at or below 50% of area median income, as their earnings grow—which Xiente is actively working to help them do—their housing stays stable. 

“Once you remove the fear that success will cost you your home, families become more eager and willing to think creatively about how to increase their income,” says Michelle. The housing becomes a launching pad rather than a ceiling.

None of this would have been possible without impact investors willing to bet on the model. Xiente’s affordable housing work has been financed in part through mission-aligned foundations making impact investments, structured as loans. Because they’re lower-interest than typical debt, it keeps costs low enough to actually serve the families who need it most. This early infusion of capital also helped the organization attract more capital, adding legitimacy that made it easier to land additional funds from grants. And it allows the organization to move much more quickly than waiting on Low Income Housing Tax Credits, the slow-moving and complex federal program for funding affordable housing projects.

Michelle credits Philadelphia’s impact investing ecosystem with shifting how local foundations think about deploying their dollars.

“That type of impact investment relates directly to the opportunities we can provide families,” she says.

Meaningful returns for families and investors

The first ten units of the Mi Casa project—funded by a half a million dollar investment—have been occupied for about two years now, and the early results are striking.

Xiente is already paying back its loans—at interest rates between 2% and 4%—and the foundations involved have been engaged and enthusiastic enough that several are now committed to phase two to put an additional 20 units on the market. Phase three is already on the horizon.

The social impact return, however, has been immense. 

Families in phase one have increased their credit scores by more than 50 points. One family was able to start a business; in another, a single mom went back to school for a masters degree.

Several families have saved enough to consider buying a home and, because Mi Casa units aren’t tied to income limits, they can take their time doing it right. More than a few have decided to keep saving—inspired, Michelle says, by the quality of what Xiente built for them. They know what a good home for their family feels like now and they’re not willing to settle.

Michelle says that type of aspiration is critical for achieving meaningful change. “The ability to envision a different future for yourself is key in order to stay focused through the many barriers to social mobility,” she says. “We’re seeing progress and we’re excited about it.”

Investing from a prosperity mindset

Michelle still sees enormous untapped potential, both in how Community Development Corporations like Xiente integrate impact capital into their funding portfolios and in how many investors are willing to provide it. 

“We need to figure out how we get people to be more comfortable with this type of investment and deploying this type of cash into communities, because it’s needed,” she says.

Her pitch to the unconvinced isn’t primarily a financial one.

“I think that, if we’re going to solve the issues that we have in our society, at some point we need to say, ‘I have enough that I’m willing to bet on someone else’s progress,’” she says. “We believe that only poor people live with a mindset of scarcity but, sadly, sometimes we try to invest from that mindset of scarcity, not a mindset of prosperity.”

Instead, she encourages investors to consider their legacy beyond financial accumulation to the ripple effect they want to have on communities they care about. “The more we trust our values, our purpose, the more prosperous we become.”

She also wishes more people would think about investing in the social sector the way they think about backing an up-and-coming startup—with a healthy appetite for risk, and the understanding that big swings sometimes miss.

“Think about the social sector the same way that we celebrate an innovator when he tries to do something that doesn’t work the first time around,” she says. “Can we trust that we can invest in innovation that sometimes may need to get adjusted or rethought, but sometimes will work to lift more people up?”

For Michelle, this mindset-shifting work is inseparable from her core purpose in life. “In order for me to help lift as many people as I can out of poverty, I also need to help as many people find purpose in lifting others—the same way that they have thrived themselves.”

Written by Erin Greenawald