DECATUR, Ga., Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- On December 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund awarded Community Housing Capital (CHC) a $590,000 Financial Assistance (FA) grant. As a national financial intermediary and direct lender to the NeighborWorks® Network, CHC provides interim real estate development and permanent multifamily loans to support affordable housing development. CHC will use the FA award to create a new affordable long-term debt product with a mix of construction and permanent financing. The new loan product will take advantage of the low-cost capital CHC can access from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) and other sources. It will complement and leverage Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity, enabling affordable multifamily projects to go forward at a lower execution cost.
"At CHC, we have seen our borrowers struggle to access capital affordably due to both the size and expense constraints of accessing capital market programs. The capital markets offer the best way to attract long-term fixed-rate and low-cost capital. However, transactions with a principal balance of $3 million or less are not attractive due to the expense of underwriting and producing a public offering statement and/or the transaction costs are high," said Cindy Holler, President, and CEO of Community Housing Capital.
CHC believes that the FHLB products, and its Community Investment Program (CIP) in particular, offers the best alternative to efficiently give its borrowers smaller, well-priced, long-term permanent loans to pair with their LIHTC projects. As a member of the FHLB Atlanta, CHC can borrow from FHLB and pass on the savings to its borrowers, savings that can be essential for projects with 100-units or less. On a portfolio basis, FHLB products create better leverage on housing subsidies, resulting in more projects and more units produced.
"Because we do early lending with our borrowers, we can offer this permanent loan product with a construction loan. This eliminates the need for the borrower to go to another lender, avoiding the expense of several underwrites and up to three closings," said Holler. "We've had a long, successful history competing for and deploying CDFI award-funded capital. This latest award will increase the financing flexibility our borrowers have to develop high-quality yet truly affordable multifamily housing."
About Community Housing Capital
Community Housing Capital has, through its lending activity, created or preserved over 20,400 units of affordable housing and facilitated $2.7 billion in total development during its 21-year history. Community Housing Capital is headquartered in Decatur, Georgia. View Community Housing Capital's 20-Year Anniversary Report and for more information, visit https://www.communityhousingcapital.org.
Media Contact
Cindy Holler, Community Housing Capital, +1 678 904 1305, [email protected]
SOURCE Community Housing Capital
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