March 2012 Issue of Affordable Housing Finance

Here is an overview of the features we are working on. Both debt and equity providers will have great reason to take a look at this issue. 

Closing is Feb 1, 2012

FINANCE:

Affordable Housing’s Top Lenders:

Jerry is surveying the nation’s top affordable housing lenders of 2011 and will be putting together a list of the Top 25 as well as interviewing many of them about their plans for this upcoming year. 

Tax Credit Equity:

Donna is doing her annual year-end survey and look ahead with national syndicators as well as the state and local equity funds. This survey always yields important data for the industry.

Neighborhood Revitalization:

The Citi Foundation made a commitment to the Housing Partnership Network to support neighborhood revitalization since national dollars may be coming to an end in this arena. The grant awards will fund 10 different neighborhood stabilization initiatives over a two-year period, and the Housing Partnership Network members will meet often to share their results as part of a peer review.

SOUTHEAST:

TBG Residential and Lane Co. have rebuilt a seniors LIHTC project in Tuscaloosa that was destroyed by an F-5 tornado last spring. 

Metro 510: Donna will be writing about Sage Partners’ Metro 510 in Tampa.

Georgia QAP: Georgia is making some changes to its qualified allocation plan, including a change to allow for awards for scattered-site single-family work.

990 Polk

Affordable Housing Finance's Donna Kimura and Tom Borsellino attended the ‘first look’ of 990 Polk, a newly constructed energy-sustainable apartment complex for low-income and formerly homeless seniors, located in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The event incorporated an awards presentation to TNDC and Citizens Housing for their green building efforts in San Francisco and a tour of the new property. Bank of America joins the celebration by announcing a three-year national grant to Enterprise for its work in community development and green building, nationwide.

Featured speakers included Gavin Newsom, Mayor, city of San Francisco, Doris Koo, President and CEO, Enterprise Community Partners, Janet Lamkin, California State President, Bank of America, James Buckley, President, Citizens Housing Corporation and Don Falk, Executive Director, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Obviously it was cool to see important and much needed projects getting completed, but the fact that the project was "affordable", "seniors", "environmentally (and economically) sustainable" made it particularly noteworthy.

And this project needed appliances, products and services no different from any other. Here is a shot of the laundry facility.

(SAN FRANCISCO, December 2, 2008) – Leading nonprofit affordable housing organization Enterprise Community Partners honored Citizens Housing Corporation and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) today to celebrate the developers' work in building environmentally sustainable housing for low-income communities in San Francisco. Joined by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Bank of America, the awards ceremony took place at 990 Polk Street, a newly constructed low-income senior housing property in the Tenderloin neighborhood.

Click here for the Affordable Housing Finance Story.

Rental Housing and Home Ownership

Here is a video that I recently came across that articulates some key factors we need to consider in housing policy. There is an obvious disconnect between supply and demand in rental housing that will finally have to be addressed...and hopefully we can have a constructive dialogue to approach this dilemma in a thoughtful manner.

April 24, 2008 —
"Despite the fact that one-third of all Americans—representing 36 million households—live in rental housing, rental policy often takes a back seat to home-ownership policy in Washington. To ensure that low- and moderate-income Americans can afford rental housing, Bruce Katz says that the next president needs to help supplement incomes through tax credits, empower local governments to expand and preserve the supply of affordable housing and deal with the subprime mortgage crisis."


I appreciate Bruce Katz' approach and his thoughts on "empowering local government to innovate."

Thanks to Brookings for the information.

Affordable Housing Developer of the Day

Another market segment with strong fundamentals that has hit a strong headwind is affordable housing. The shortage of tax credit equity has put many deals in jeopardy. There are some success stories out there and the local agencies seem to be trying to step up to plug the gaps.

The Sacramento Business Journal profiled a local developer who is having a record year amongst the turmoil, St Anton Partners LLC. "The company has a portfolio of more than 4,000 units spread across almost 30 projects in the capital region. With 200 employees, it's one of the area's larger developers..."

The article goes on to point out:

One reason it's larger than the typical developer is that St. Anton handles financing in-house rather than through consultants and acts as its own general contractor and property manager. The latter is a key component that has redevelopment agencies singing its praises.

The good news is that more people finally realize we have a problem in delivering product to this market. Demand will continue to outpace supply for years to come. One would hope that sustainable legislation (not a bailout) to stimulate this vital sector will be fast-tracked. I am certainly more confident in the creativity of the active participants in this business than the government's ability to act quickly this year, so I will keep an eye out for more success stories like St. Anton.

Affordable Housing Finance: Awards

This is very big news around the office and throughout B2B Publishing. The Jesse Neal Award has often been referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of business media.” Winning one award for any publication is an outstanding achievement. Affordable Housing Finance won 2 of these awards and was nominated as a finalist for the Grand Neal Award.

Congrats to Andre and his editorial team on this extremely prestigious recognition.

I think this news is particularly important for anyone who does business in affordable housing. It speaks to the commitment that is made to both readers and advertisers of Affordable Housing Finance. Those who have invested in the success of the brand over the years share in this tribute in more ways than one. Jesse himself said it best:

"I believe that the deepest satisfaction that a business editor can enjoy is realizing his success can and does affect an entire trade or industry." –Jesse H. Neal, 1955

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - March 25, 2008) - Hanley Wood's AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine, the leading publication serving the affordable housing industry, won top honors at last week's 54th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

Honored for its article, "The Trouble with HUD and How to Fix It," AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE was named a winner for the Best Subject Related Series of Articles category and a finalist for the Grand Neal Award. Additionally, AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine won an award for Best Single Issue of a Magazine.

The Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards are sponsored by American Business Media, the national organization representing business to business media.

"We are extremely honored to be recognized by American Business Media. These prestigious awards are a testament to our talented staff, our honest and groundbreaking reporting style, and our commitment to improving affordable housing," said Editor-in-Chief, Andre Shashaty. "This recognition helps publicize certain practices that demand public scrutiny and furthers our industry's mission in solving the nation's housing problems," added Shashaty.

Here is a link to the full press release.

Affordable Housing Opportunity

My post today is from lovely Las Vegas where I am stationed for the National Apartment Association Annual Conference at Mandalay Bay.

On my way out I was reading some interesting material in the latest issue of Affordable Housing Finance that is worth keeping an eye on. Especially if you are a service provider who is not as familiar with tax credit projects.

Many Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects are approaching the end of their 15-year compliance period where the IRS no longer monitors the property's status. Owners and investors are therefore presented with a unique opportunity to re-evaluate a go forward strategy.

The link to our website is not available quite yet but there are 2 articles of interest that I will activate once we have it posted.

1. A LIHTC Condo Conversion - a rental project goes condo and stays affordable.

2. CAPREIT (a market-rate owner) now taking positions in LIHTC Projects coming off 15 year compliance periods.

According to Martin Bershtein, of CAPREIT, "Getting into the affordable housing business provides a new opportunity to acquire and manage properties."

It seems like service providers looking for growth opportunities might find some opportunities here as well.

Learn more about the market by viewing some back issues of the affordable housing market bible, Affordable Housing Finance.

Enterprise Community Investment

The NCSHA Housing Credit Conference is in San Francisco this week. I wanted to report in on the Enterprise Community Investment reception that took place last night at the SF Marriott.

The food was exceptional and the wine flights were even better.

Most importantly we were able to catch up with our friends at Enterprise and their guests right in our own backyard. This year signifies their 25th anniversary as leaders in community development. We salute their tremendous commitment to housing and fine work accomplished.

Enterprise remains focused on 4 core housing initiatives in 2007 which include: Green Communities, Gulf Coast rebuilding, preservation of affordable housing stock and housing combined with supportive services. We are closely aligned in many of these areas and are proud to call them partners of our multifamily group.

Special thanks to Jeffrey Donahue (President & Chief Executive Officer), Charlie Werhane, Audrey Easaw and Andrea Schleicher for their hospitality.

Top photo (l to r): Andrea Schleicher & Audrey Easaw
Bottom photo: Jeffrey Donahue, Audrey Easaw and Charlie Werhane