USA Properties Fund has grown to own nearly 11,000 affordable housing units in the West.
The Roseville, Calif.–based firm has five developments under construction, including two affordable communities—a 200-unit senior property in Orange County, Calif., and a 75-unit senior community in Newark in Northern California, says Geoff Brown, president and CEO.
About two-thirds of USA Properties Fund’s portfolio is housing for the elderly, so the firm is continually looking for ways to serve this population. In a new move, the firm is working with LifeSTEPS, a social-service provider, on a pilot program to provide an on-site nurse at three communities. Through the program, a nurse recently detected dangerously high blood pressure in a resident and helped the resident get care.
“Our long-term goal is to try to scale the program and get more funding because aging in place for the elderly is going to be a big issue going forward,” Brown says. “We feel it’s important to try to get ahead of the issue.”
The firm also has three market-rate developments under construction. Building market-rate communities has helped the company diversify its holdings as well as helped grow its core competence in multifamily housing, including in design, construction, and operating communities, Brown says.
“I think it’s making us better in the affordable housing space by having the market-rate component,” he says.
Over the years, USA Properties Fund has regularly utilized tax-exempt bonds to finance its affordable housing communities. The bond program came under threat during the tax reform negotiations last year but were ultimately retained.
“We’re very thankful that we survived the tax reform threat to save the private-activity bond because we very much rely on that program,” Brown says.
