Business Women Awards 2022
Industry Leader Government/Quasi-Government Kara Lachapelle, R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp.
It isn’t focusing on the bottom line that drives Kara Lachapelle and her team at the R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp. in Providence. It’s to put that money to work within the state, particularly for individuals who are looking for a new home.
Lachapelle, the chief financial officer for the self-supporting public mortgage lending agency, has overseen $350 million in utility and rental assistance and $50 million in pandemic-related assistance for renters and homeowners. Lachapelle said such work with the agency is “really about trying to provide the best programs we have through financing and through the work that we do.”
R.I. Housing provides an array of services to Rhode Island homeowners and potential homebuyers. These include mortgage loans, in addition to providing subsidies to assist low-income individuals with rent, supporting the development of affordable homes in the state and helping homeowners maintain their homes. In 2021, R.I. Housing provided $487 million in mortgage loans for first-time homebuyers.
R.I. Housing also sells bonds on Wall Street to provide its mortgages. Lachapelle said it’s a complex financial structure to issue bonds. She also helped put a structure together to analyze the best way for R.I. Housing to sell those bonds.
“We have partners who we work with who help us reach the investors, underwriters and bond counsel and lots of Wall Street bankers who assist us with that,” Lachapelle said. “So if we sell the bonds and get a low rate, we’re able to provide a mortgage with a low rate to our customers.”
Lachapelle’s leadership also helped pave the way for a landmark year for the agency. R.I. Housing in 2021 saw the highest volume of mortgage loans in its 50 years of operation.
Lachappelle, who has been with R.I. Housing for 20 years, describes her leadership style as “very collaborative.” She likes to include as many of her colleagues as possible and feels agency staff is better together when there are different views, different strengths and a goal to accomplish.
“It’s important to include as many different viewpoints as you can to come up with the best solution,” Lachapelle said. “Leading by example with my team, I have an open-door kind of policy, and [I’m] available to help or to speak with anyone at any time and help them work through problems.”
R.I. Housing Executive Director Carol Ventura told Providence Business News in an email that Lachapelle is “a leader with vision” who helped her team grow, take risks and forge their own paths in becoming leaders at both the agency and in the field of finance.
“[Lachapelle] is open to new ideas and new ways of thinking, while also willing to share her own experiences to help her team and R.I. Housing make the kinds of smart decisions and investments so we can help Rhode Islanders access safe and healthy homes,” Ventura said.
Lachapelle and the R.I. Housing team also worked to address challenges for homeowners and renters that were brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lachapelle said the health crisis really has shown many people the importance of housing.
“[Housing is] just such a basic, essential need that it can sometimes be taken for granted,” she said. “There is a bigger focus on housing the past couple of years. And going forward, the governor [Daniel J. McKee] is focusing a lot on housing and implementing housing programs.”
One such program was announced in March when the state made available $60 million in affordable housing funding in Rhode Island. Lachapelle said scaling up fast for some of those programs have been challenging but “being able to help people is the reward.”
Ventura gives a lot of credit to Lachapelle’s leadership, adding that it’s “not an exaggeration” to say R.I. Housing couldn’t do the work it does without Lachapelle.
“Time and again she has been a leader in spearheading new and innovative programs, which have helped R.I. Housing respond to extremely volatile mortgage markets, financial crises and, in these last few years, the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our state’s economy,” Ventura said.