UCLA Housing Voice Ep. 108: Building Wealth by Renting with Shane Phillips and Bob Simpson
Mar 5, 2026
Bob Simpson, former Fannie Mae executive and founder of Simpson Impact Strategies, leads the Multifamily Impact Council and shapes multifamily finance and impact standards. Conversation covers the Multifamily Impact Framework, a shared prosperity rental model that shares profits with tenants, financing and leverage mechanics, tenant reward designs, risks to lenders and renters, and practical pilots for testing the idea.
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Use Impact Frameworks To Align Investors And Social Goals
- Adopt an impact-investing framework that ties resident outcomes to financial metrics to attract capital.
- Bob's Multifamily Impact Framework links renter wellbeing to NOI and cash flow so investors can measure both impact and returns.
How SPR Uses High Leverage To Fund Tenant Shares
- Shared Prosperity Rental (SPR) links higher lender-backed leverage to tenant profit sharing so renters receive a portion of building profits.
- Shane models swapping typical 40% equity for ~10% equity with government-backed high-leverage loans to free ~$1M per $10M project for tenant distributions.
Leverage Shift Dramatically Reduces Early Investor Profit
- Increasing debt share from 60% to 90% lowers investor profit claims and frees cash for tenant payout while keeping lender and investor target returns intact.
- Shane's numeric example: $10M build, 60% debt needs $13.2M sale; 90% debt needs $12.2M sale, freeing ~$1M.