Thirty-eight organizations have been awarded $130.9 million from the Capital Magnet Fund to help develop affordable housing and community facilities in low-income communities.
Twenty-three of the awardees are Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and 15 are nonprofit housing organizations.
They plan to develop more than 22,400 affordable housing units, including more than 20,700 rental units and 1,700 homeownership units, according to the Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund.
Combined, about 98% of all the homes will be developed for low-income families earning no more than 80% of the area median income.
Affordable housing developers receiving a Capital Magnet Fund award in the fiscal 2019 round include Abode Communities in Los Angeles, ACTION-Housing in Pittsburgh, Community Housing Partners in Christiansburg, Va.; Foundation Communities in Austin, Texas; Gulf Coast Housing Partnership in New Orleans; IFF in Chicago; MidPen Housing Corp. in Foster City, Calif.; Mission First Housing Development Corp. in Philadelphia; The Community Builders in Boston; and Volunteers of America National Services in Eden Prairie, Minn. The Rural Community Assistance Corp. of West Sacramento, Calif., a nonprofit that provides training as well as technical and financial resources, also received an award.
State housing finance agencies and housing finance organizations receiving an award include Century Housing Corp. in Culver City, Calif.; Cinnaire Lending Corp. in Chicago; Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) in Denver; The Community Development Trust in New York City; Enterprise Community Loan Fund in Columbia, Md.; Genesis LA Economic Growth Corp. in Los Angeles; Housing Vermont in Burlington, Vt.; Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency in Boston; Ohio Capital Finance Corp. in Columbus, Ohio; and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority in Madison, Wis.
For a list, see the award book.
CHFA was awarded a $6 million grant, its third Capital Magnet Fund award, bringing its total to more than $19 million.
It will use the award to fill gaps in funding needed to construct or preserve affordable rental housing. A minimum of 65% will be invested in areas of economic distress, and at least 60% of all affordable rental housing units supported with the funds will serve households earning at or below 50% of the area median income, said CHFA officials.
The awardees were selected from 113 applicants requesting more than $522 million in Capital Magnet Fund awards.
Awardees are required to leverage their awards with other private and public investment by at least 10 to 1, guaranteeing that a minimum of $1.3 billion will be invested in eligible projects across the United States. For the fiscal 2019 round, the awardees anticipate that almost $4 billion will be invested in total, including more than $3 billion in private investment.
The 38 selected organizations will collectively serve 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Seven awardees, or 18%, will invest at least half of their award dollars in rural areas.
The Capital Magnet Fund was established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Funding for the program comes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and varies from year to year. The fiscal 2019 round is the fifth round in the program’s history.