April 2008 Table of Contents

Featured
Reauthorize HOPE VI, But Make a Few Changes First

I am no longer an administration official so let me reveal a personal but, for me, necessary inconsistency between administration policy and my personal opinion: I think the HOPE VI program should be reauthorized, but not as currently conceived in legislation pending before Congress. Read more

Top 10 Tips to Go Green

Based on dozens of interviews with developers, engineers, and investors, here are AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE's top 10 practical green building tips. Read more

Failure of Leadership

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While pitcher Roger Clemens was testifying at a circus of a congressional hearing a few weeks ago, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank was just down the hall, working away with a handful of other legislators at a hearing on how to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act. Read more

Q & A with Patrick Clancy, chief of The Community Builders of Boston

PATRICK CLANCY leads one of the largest nonprofit affordable housing organizations in the country. Read more

Changing Housing Law

The economic stimulus bill signed by President Bush includes mortgage limit increases intended to provide relief for the troubled housing market, but Democrats are pushing for broader assistance that the administration doesn't want. Read more

Seattle YWCA Does Innovative Bond Deal

SEATTLE -- The YWCA of Seattle, King County, and Snohomish County has a long history of providing affordable housing but knew it had to do more. Read more

What HFAs See in the LIHTC Market

Some low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) deals are struggling in the wake of declining equity prices. Read more

Know Your Market

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE talked to Rob Vogt, partner at VWB Research, a national real estate research firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Read more

Green Takes Flight at Stapleton

DENVER - Talk about a gold star: The 18 affordable apartments at Central Park at Stapleton here have met the toughest residential green building standard on the books—the gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes from the U.S. Green Building Council. Read more

New Standards for Green Building

The related issues of climate change and ballooning utility bills have become fashionable in the housing industry. Read more

More Money for Green Properties

Tallman Pines sold its low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) for more than $1 per dollar of credit even after prices began to dip. Bank of America bid high to invest in the public housing redevelopment in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and kept its commitment to close the deal last summer even after prices began to fall and other affordable projects saw their investors change or even walk away from their commitments. Read more

A Green Mixed-Use Community

Melaver, Inc., will soon break ground on Sustainable Fellwood, a 320-unit mixed-income, mixed-use green development in Savannah, Ga. Read more

Bonds Get Edgewood Going

AKRON, OHIO -- Tax-exempt bond financing has helped the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) jump-start an ambitious 221-unit development on the city's west side. Read more

A Piece of Park City

PARK CITY, UTAH -- There are two sides to resort towns. For visitors, they are worry-free vacation destinations, but for many workers in these communities, affordable housing is out of reach. Read more

MIDWEST

LA PORTE, IND. -- The nonprofit Parents & Friends, Inc., will build the Butterfly Garden Apartments here. Read more

Green Building Saves $$$

When Ed Key tears open his utility bill every month, he sees a clear benefit from living at Denny Park Apartments, an energyefficient green affordable housing development in Seattle.  Read more

Overcoming Land Costs

In a sign of how challenging and expensive it is for affordable housing developers to buy land in the West, several new loan programs are being unveiled this year to help developers through the critical early stages of building their projects. Read more

Good Redesign Makes Old Buildings Safer

Gibson Plaza has a crime problem. The 217 family apartments in Washington, D.C., seem plagued by violence. Read more

10 Percent Test Not Graded on Curve

The information presented here is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be construed as accounting advice from the author or Reznick Group. Read more

Building on History

SAN DIEGO -- The former Wyoming National Bank building sat empty for more than two decades, with little hope for it to ever be restored. Read more

Housing Comes with 24-Hour Child Care

JUBILEE HOUSING is renovating one of its longtime housing developments with one unique addition: a 24-hour child-care center. Read more

Banking on Affordable Housing

CASPER, WYO -- The former Wyoming National Bank building sat empty for more than two decades, with little hope for it to ever be restored. Read more

Living on Holy Ground

SAN FRANCISCO -- It was while riding a city bus that Linda Jennings first noticed a beautiful converted church. Read more

New Standards for Green Building

This spring, a partnership between the International Code Council (ICC) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) plans to release a new green building standard, adding to an already dizzying array of green standards confronting affordable housing developers. Here's a list of the most important: Read more

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