The new Housing Partnership Equity Trust has invested in its second transaction with the purchase of a 129-unit development in Fairfield, Calif.
The Equity Trust is a nonprofit real estate investment trust that is providing 12 nonprofit developers with capital to acquire affordable rental housing developments. It is sponsored by the Boston-based Housing Partnership Network (HPN).
Launched last December, the Equity Trust draws on $100 million raised from Citi, Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
In its latest deal, the Equity Trust invested $3.4 million in Eden Housing's acquisition of Woodside Court Apartments. The total transaction cost was just less than $13 million.
“Given that we have already lost our primary source of funding with the elimination of the redevelopment agencies and $1 billion a year in local affordable housing resources, Eden needed to be creative and find new ways to continue to provide affordable homes,” said Eden Housing President Linda Mandolini in a statement. “The Equity Trust allows us to assure the preservation of safe, affordable housing for current residents and for the thousands of people on our waiting lists.”
Headquartered in Hayward, Calif., the firm is a longtime affordable housing developer and owner.
The Equity Trust helps its members, who also belong to HPN, by providing capital to acquire apartment properties. The transactions are unique because they do not involve the use of low-income housing tax credits or other public subsidies, which can take years to obtain.
In June, Thomas Bledsoe, president and CEO of HPN, announced plans to raise an additional $500 million during the next two years.
For its first transaction, the Equity Trust helped Mercy Housing Lakefront purchase a 128-unit property in Aurora, Ill.
The 12 nonprofit members of the Equity Trust are: AHC, Inc.; BRIDGE Housing Corp.; Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc.; Community Preservation and Development Corp.; Eden Housing, Inc.; Hispanic Housing Development Corp.; Homes for America, Inc.; LINC Housing Corp.; Mercy Housing; Nevada HAND, Inc.; The NHP Foundation; and National Housing Trust/Enterprise.
