California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program Impact Report: Rounds 1 – 7
The California Housing Partnership (the Partnership) has released a new policy brief co-authored with Enterprise Community Partners documenting the substantial community and economic benefits made possible by the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. According to the report, the AHSC program has already brought about 17,878 new affordable homes and reduced 5.2 million metric Read More
California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program: Six Years of Investments | Impact Report: Rounds 1 – 6
The California Housing Partnership (the Partnership) has released a new policy brief co-authored with Enterprise Community Partners documenting the substantial community and economic benefits made possible by the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. According to the report, the AHSC program has already brought about 15,324 new affordable homes and reduced 4.4 million metric Read More
LIWP 2020 Case Study: Florence Avenue Villas, Century Housing
LIWP works to leverage incentive programs and deliver deeper savings for residents and property owner at Florence Avenue Villas
California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program: Five Years of Investments | Impact Report: Rounds 1 – 5
The past year has underscored the urgency of many of the goals that guide the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. To date, AHSC has invested more than $1.6 billion in 127 catalytic developments across California that integrate housing and transportation with community infrastructure and amenities to reduce greenhouse gas Read More
Abode Communities Opens Rolland Curtis Gardens after 10-Year-Battle
On November 7, 2019, Abode Communities celebrated the grand opening of Rolland Curtis Gardens, marking a tremendous victory for residents and affordable housing advocates, and providing a fitting capstone to a fifteen-year battle against displacement of its low-income residents.
Creating Affordable Homes and Sustainable Communities: How AHSC Addresses California’s Most Pressing Challenges | Impact Report: Rounds 1 – 4
The State of California created the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program (AHSC) in 2014 in recognition of the critical role that housing and transportation play furthering the State’s climate goals.
Poway Villas: A Winning Formula for Preservation
Poway Villas is a 60-apartment, 100% Section 8 community in the City of Poway, California. The 40-year-old property was preserved by San Diego-based Community Housing Works (CHW). Poway Villas is an example of how to successfully layer Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC’s) with Department of Housing and Urban Development Read More
Juniper Gardens: Wakeland Housing Uses New CalHFA Program to Preserve 40 Affordable Homes in San Diego
San Diego-based Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation purchased Juniper Gardens, a 40-apartment Section 8 community in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, in March 2012 with the goal to refinance and recapitalize the property in order to ensure its long-term affordability. Wakeland Housing took advantage of the CalHFA new Read More
Sunny Meadows: MidPen Housing Preserves 200 Affordable Homes in Santa Cruz County
On August 16, MidPen Housing Corporation celebrated the renovation of Sunny Meadows, a 200-unit, two-story, garden-style affordable apartment complex in the city of Watsonville. With 22 buildings spanning 14 acres, Sunny Meadows is one of the largest apartment complexes in Santa Cruz County and an important fixture in the Watsonville Read More
Preservation through Stewardship: The Story of EAH Housing and Shelter Hill in Mill Valley, CA
In 1975, EAH Housing and Interfaith Housing Foundation (IHF) joined forces to build Shelter Hill, a 75‐unit family development made possible by the city of Mill Valley’s new inclusionary zoning ordinance. This case study highlights the critical stewardship role that one large nonprofit housing organization took on to help a smaller Read More
Erna P. Harris Court: Supportive Housing for Formerly Homeless in Berkeley “Goes Green”
In 1991, Berkeley-based Resources for Community Development (RCD) first began working on Erna P. Harris Court in Berkeley to transform the 1950’s-era motel into 35 units of affordable, supportive housing for homeless and disabled adults. By 2008, through advancements in green building, RCD was able to rehabilitate the property using Read More
Mercy’s Boulevard Court Apartments: Transformation from Roadside Motel to Supportive Housing for the Homeless
On October 6, Mercy Housing California and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) celebrated the grand re-opening of the Boulevard Court Apartments in Sacramento. This partnership succeeded in transforming a once blighted motel into 75 units of permanently affordable housing for formerly homeless individuals with disabilities.
Turk & Eddy: Preserving HUD-Assisted Homes and Creating Jobs with the Help of Federal Stimulus and Redevelopment Funds
The Turk and Eddy apartment buildings are two separate mid-rise buildings built in 1923 and 1925 in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, providing 82 affordable studio and one-bedroom apartments for extremely low-income seniors. In 2007, after the property faced the threat of converting to market-rate, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) Read More
“Preserving” Market Rate Properties to Reduce Homelessness: The Courtyards in Long Beach
In 2008, Clifford Beers Housing purchased The Courtyards in Long Beach and saw a tremendous opportunity to rehabilitate and preserve the four 1920’s-era, single-story, courtyard-style apartment buildings. The Courtyards was among one of the first projects in the state to use California’s Mental Health Services Act capital funds to create Read More
Preservation of PHD Apartments In Los Angeles Demonstrates Impact of Federal Stimulus and State Preservation Notice Law
In August 2007, Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) partnered with the Korean Youth and Community Center (KYCC) to acquire the Professional Housing and Development (PHD) apartments in Los Angeles and preserve the affordability of the property.
Parc Grove Commons: Neighborhood Revitalization in Fresno Made Possible through $5.7 million in Federal Stimulus Funds
In April 2011, the Housing Authority of the City of Fresno (HACF) celebrated the grand opening of Parc Grove Commons, a 215-apartment mixed-income community made possible through $5.7 million in federal stimulus funds from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Through this energy-efficient neighborhood revitalization effort, HACF created Read More
Eden Housing Perseveres in Transforming Low-Income Community in Alameda County
In May 2008, Eden Housing set out to rehabilitate Ashland Village, the 142-apartment community in unincorporated Alameda County. Despite the Section 8 contract facing expiration in one year, Eden succeeded in preserving the affordability of the apartments and creating a healthier, more supportive environment for its residents.
St. Joseph’s Senior Apartments Groundbreaking: Historic Rehabilitation through Tax Credit Financing
The groundbreaking of St. Joseph’s Senior Apartments in Oakland in May 2010 marks the start of a large development by BRIDGE Housing to create affordable senior housing while also preserving a significant historic landmark. The development will include 84 affordable apartments for low and very low-income seniors and ground floor Read More
New Carver Apartments Offers New Solutions for the Homeless in Los Angeles
Skid Row Housing Trust is celebrating the recent grand opening of the New Carver apartments, which will provide 97 efficiency apartments for homeless seniors and homeless men and women with physical disabilities. The development will include onsite healthcare and other supportive services for its residents.
Nonprofit Uses Financing Partnerships to Preserve At-Risk Property Despite Competition
Azusa Apartments is an 88-apartment affordable housing development located in Azusa, California, a Los-Angeles area suburb. The property was built in 1971, subsidized by a U.S. HUD Section 236 loan. After the loan reached the end of its 40-year term in 2012, Community HousingWorks stepped in to preserve the development.
Preserving a Historic Hotel with Innovative Financing and the Partial Transfer of a Section 8 Contract
In February 2015, Christian Church Homes (CCH) celebrated the grand re-opening of the Lorenz Senior Apartments in Redding, California after a major rehabilitation. A historic hotel that had been converted to senior housing, the Lorenz was in need of structural upgrades and repairs and improvements.
University Avenue Homes: A Critical Resource in Need of TLC
UA Homes is one of many aging SRO properties in California that provide an important affordable housing resource for low‐income people who would otherwise be homeless. However, at nearly 90 years of age and with complicated layers of restrictive financing, UA Homes badly needed a major physical and financial rehabilitation. Read More
Garfield Park Village Pioneers SPRAC for Unassisted Section 202 Properties
Located in Santa Cruz, California, and owned and managed by Christian Church Homes (CCH), Garfield Park Village is an affordable senior apartment complex developed in 1964 with a HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Subsidized Mortgage. In Dec 2013, Garfield Park became one of the first Section 202 Read More
HUD Preservation Round Two: Ensuring the Long-term Financial, Physical, and Environmental Sustainability of a LIHPRA Property
Los Robles Apartments is a 76-unit, multifamily, affordable development located in the city of Vista in San Diego County. The property was built in 1974 using a (HUD) Section 236 subsidized mortgage. By 1996, the for-profit owner of Los Robles was considering converting the development to market-rate. Community Housing Works Read More
Greening City Gardens | Demonstration Project
This report describes a new approach to financing energy efficiency retrofits at affordable multifamily rental properties in California. The California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) and Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) worked with LINC Housing (LINC) on a whole-building retrofit project to demonstrate how common barriers to financing energy Read More
SAHA Creates a Model for Achieving Verified Energy Savings | Case Study
Berkeley-based nonprofit affordable housing owner Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA) is using sophisticated tools to track energy and water performance at Merritt Crossing Senior Apartments, leading to clearly quantifiable energy savings. These results can lead to improvements not only in the operations of the property but also in how future energy Read More
Eden Housing Pioneers a New Model for Recapitalizing Aging HUD 202 Properties
In March 2013, after years of effort, Eden Housing closed the financing and began rehabilitating six properties originally built with Section 202 loans more than twenty years earlier. This case study highlights their innovative approach.
The Cambridge Apartments: Preserving Permanent Supportive Housing for the Long Term
On Thursday, July 18th, Community Housing Partnership (CHP), celebrated the grand reopening of the Cambridge Apartments with 60 efficiency units for formerly homeless adults in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Preserving housing for California’s most vulnerable low-income residents is challenging work involving complex efforts to navigate and integrate funding programs and Read More
Public Housing Transformation: Maple Park Apartments in Live Oak, CA
On May 29th, 2013, the Regional Housing Authority of Sutter and Nevada Counties (RHASNC) and its nonprofit development partner, the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), as well as members of the local community, celebrated the completion of Phase I of the newly rebuilt Maple Park Apartments in the Sutter County Read More
Revitalizing the Evergreen Apartments
The City of Long Beach helps Abode Communities Preserve 81 Affordable Homes. US Bank became the LIHTC investor, while Union Bank was the bond purchaser and lender. Together, they extended affordability for an additional 40 years.
The Arbors: Green Preservation Rehab
The Arbors is a success story that shows how an experienced nonprofit housing developer working in partnership with a mission driven local nonprofit lender can overcome huge financing obstacles to transform older HUD-assisted housing into healthier green housing that will remain affordable for future generations of low income Californians.