Read the full article by Ben van der Meer at Sacramento Business Journal
Virtually every affordable housing project starts with new market-rate housing.
More specifically, fees attached to that housing, typically single-family homes. Jurisdictions attach an affordable housing fee to a home in lieu of building one themselves, and as homes get built, housing funds get built up and then doled out to affordable developers who’ve typically got a site, proposal and intended residents in mind already.
That’s usually just to get started. To go from concept to construction, affordable housing developers usually also have to cobble together financing sources including loans, tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits to get what’s known as the capital stack.
“Our system is a patchwork of agencies,” said Steven Gall, executive vice president with Roseville-based USA Properties Fund Inc., one of the biggest locally based affordable housing developers.
It’s a flawed starting point, some say. But at the outset is a tension tied to housing affordability overall.