From Real Estate Training to Community Investment: How Raíces Capital Fund Is Building Wealth With and for Latino Philadelphians

When the team at Greenline Access Capital  entered the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia’s 2025 Fair City Challenge, with their project Raíces Capital Fund (RCF), they brought more than an idea. They brought a solution grounded in experience, cultural understanding, and a perspective on what it takes to build generational wealth in communities that are historically excluded from real estate development. The goal of Raíces Capital Fund is to help Latino residents of Philadelphia move from aspiring property owners to confident developers, supported by technical training, mentorship, and access to capital.
 

RCF is a revolving loan program led by Kersy Azocar that is designed to provide flexible financing for graduates of Jumpstart Philly En Español, a real estate development training initiative tailored for Spanish-speaking Philadelphians. Both programs, RCF and Jumpstart Philly En Español, are funded by Greenline Access Capital. Graduates contribute 5% of their project costs, RCF lends 10%, and the remaining financing is assembled through support from additional lending institutions. RCF fills a crucial capital gap and delivers comprehensive support to ensure participants are prepared to succeed. RCF is a supplemental fund to help recent graduates apply for financing for their development programs. The estimated average loan amount is $10K to $20K.
 

Building a Pipeline of Latino Developers

RCF’s initial cohort draws from Jumpstart Philly En Español, which launched in 2024 and has already graduated 70 students across three cohorts. Jumpstart Philly En Español focuses on the technical and practical aspects of property investment, including budgeting, permitting, financing, and construction management.
 

RCF’s investment in culturally relevant education is intentional, since Philadelphia’s Hispanic and Latino population makes up nearly 15% of the city’s residents but remains significantly underrepresented among real estate developers and property owners. In RCF’s target zip codes, such as 19134, 19133, and 19140, where Latino residents make up between 33% and 59% of the population, poverty rates continue to range from 28% to 41%. For many residents in these neighborhoods, entering the development market feels unattainable.
 

“Becoming a real estate investor seems impossible for most people,” explains Kersy Azocar, President and CEO of Greenline Access Capital. “The knowledge gap is real, and so are the risks. We've seen developers in our community fall victim to predatory lending simply because they didn’t know better.”
 

One such case involved a program graduate who was preparing to take out a $250,000 loan. With Greenline’s support, he discovered that the closing costs included more than $33,000 in hidden fees. That loan was canceled, and the graduate is now working with a reputable financial organization to move his project forward.
 

Extending the Impact Beyond the Classroom

The Jumpstart Philly En Español program is part of an existing program, JumpStart Philly, created in 2015. Jumpstart is a unique community development program that provides training, mentoring, networking, and financing for aspiring local developers. They have graduated over 2,000 participants and provided over 490 loans with more than $62 million in loan funding. 
 

Unlike many training programs that end with a certificate, RCF engages graduates long after their Jumpstart Philly En Español cohort ends. Ongoing support includes bi-monthly workshops, mentorship, credit-building assistance, connections to city and nonprofit programs, and an active peer bilingual network.
 

Looking ahead, the RCF team is focused on scaling its model. With additional investment, they aim to raise $200,000 to support 10 developers per year with low-interest loans up to $20,000 each.
 

Defining a Greenlined Philadelphia

At the core of RCF’s vision is a concept they call “Greenlining.” This approach seeks to reverse the legacy of redlining by equipping historically excluded communities with the resources, knowledge, and financing to lead development on their own terms. With more than 20,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia, the RCF team sees significant potential for ethical redevelopment, affordable housing, and equitable growth.
 

Looking Ahead

As part of the 2025 Fair City Challenge (FCC), RCF has received mentorship, connections, and early-stage support, including $10,000 of initial funding from the Economy League to test and refine its model. FCC is the Economy League’s civic innovation competition designed to identify and scale bold ideas that revalue property in historically disinvested Philadelphia neighborhoods.
 

For RCF, additional investment would provide critical seed funding to expand their loan fund and strengthen the infrastructure needed to support more graduates in taking on larger development projects. But even beyond the competition, their work is already demonstrating how community-based solutions can unlock pathways to wealth and stability for families across Philadelphia.
 

To learn more about Raíces Capital Fund, visit www.greenlineaccess.org.