ANDP receives $10M in financing for neighborhood stabilization
Affordable housing organization receives financing from Housing Partnership Network New Markets Tax Credit Program
Atlanta, GA – Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. (ANDP) has closed on $10 million in financing from Housing Partnership Network’s New Markets Tax Credit program. ANDP will use the low-cost financing to acquire, rehab and sell 56 affordable homes in low-income communities still recovering from foreclosures and high levels of negative equity.
Created by Congress in 2000, the New Markets Tax Credit program is offered by the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI Fund) to foster the construction and rehabilitation of real estate and the expansion of businesses to create jobs, generate economic activity and improve the quality of services in low-income communities and to low-income residents.
“We are delighted to help our partner ANDP expand their successful business of revitalizing homes and neighborhoods in Atlanta,” said Tom Bledsoe, CEO of HPN. “This creative use of the New Markets Tax Credit program will create stable homes and economic opportunity for families while providing the catalytic investment needed to support sustainable communities and local economies. ”
TARGETED GEOGRAPHY
With HPN’s New Markets financing, ANDP will select homes to purchase, rehab and sell from qualifying low-income census tracts in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties. This targeted geography is comprised of 72 percent minority population with 48 percent of households earning less than $34,000 annually. This area also has a homeownership rate of 39.8 percent, compared to 63.6 percent nationally, and a vacancy rate of 16.4 percent, compared to 8.7 percent nationally.
Increasing homeownership is especially critical in lower-income communities of color, where residents have lost an astounding amount of wealth. African Americans —for whom home equity typically accounts for 92% of net worth — lost nearly half of their net worth following the recession and are 86 percent more likely than whites to be underwater today (Center for Global Policy Solutions, May 2014).
ANDP will serve the broader target area while collaborating on holistic, place-based neighborhood initiatives. Homes in this program will be sold to low-income families who have household incomes at or below 120 percent of area median income – nearly half of the homes will be targeted to those at 80 percent or less.
REDUCING NEGATIVE EQUITY
The program also addresses a critical concern - the pace at which neighborhoods are rebounding from the housing crisis. While the nation’s average rate of homeowner negative equity (owners who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth) is near 10 percent, ANDP’s targeted communities often have 3-4 times the national average. ANDP aims to reduce homeowner negative equity in these distressed neighborhoods by introducing quality market sales, resulting in an increase in values of surrounding homes.
A recent ANDP commissioned study documented the impact of home renovations on surrounding property values in Douglas County. From 2010 to 2013, ANDP acquired, improved and sold 53 scattered-site single-family homes to owner-occupant families in 30 Douglas County neighborhoods. According to this analysis, $2.3 million in home rehab investments made by ANDP resulted in an increase of $14.6 million in values for surrounding properties, a multiplying increase of more than six to one.
THE PARTNERS
“With financing from HPN’s New Markets program, the plan is to transform neighborhoods through single family homeownership and demonstrate it can be done at increased scale,” explained John O’Callaghan, ANDP President and CEO. “We see this opportunity to leverage New Markets dollars as a path to proving a new way of revitalizing communities.”
Over the next year, seven of HPN’s nonprofit members, all regionally-focused leaders in affordable housing development, will rehab or build, sell, and finance the sale of nearly almost 250 homes to families in distressed communities, and provide those home buyers with financial education and support. HPN’s New Markets Tax Credit investments will enable low-income homebuyers (many of whom cannot access mortgage lending or affordable quality homes) to become homeowners, improve distressed neighborhoods, and create and retain over 205 permanent jobs and up to 440 living-wage construction jobs. US Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC) served as the tax credit investor, providing $5,031,000 of financing to support the development of 75 homes between the first two projects.
Using the model created by its consultant, Smith NMTC Associates, to use New Markets Tax Credits as a source of funding for affordable single family homeownership, HPN is able to provide its participating members with a loan product with better than market rates and flexibility. USBCDC purchased the credits (a 39% tax credit) in exchange for equity. HPN then leverages additional debt to provide flexible, low-cost capital to its members. With increased access to equity at lower rates and greater flexibility, HPN members can build more single family properties, and offer more affordable mortgages, quality housing stock, and homeownership support services to low-income home buyers and residents of low income communities.
“Housing Partnership Network is a national innovator in deploying capital through high-capacity nonprofits resulting in a deeper impact on low-income families and neighborhoods. ANDP is a proud to be an active HPN member and partner,” said O’Callaghan.
ANDP’s single-family acquisition/rehab program has impacted 475 homes since the onset of the foreclosure crisis. For its New Markets program organization has already acquired 19 homes and an additional nine homes expected to be acquired soon, with a goal of 56 homes acquired by the first quarter of 2018.
For more information, visit www.andpi.org. Consumers seeking to purchase a home from ANDP should visit www.andphomes.org.
About Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership is a private, non-profit organization created in 1991 to promote, create and preserve affordable housing through direct development, capital for affordable housing development, policy research and advocacy that result in the equitable distribution of affordable housing throughout the metropolitan Atlanta region. Now in its 26th year, the organization has impacted more than 11,200 homes in metro Atlanta. ANDP is a member of Housing Partnership Network and a chartered member of NeighborWorks.
About The Housing Partnership Network: Individuals, communities, and the economy benefit when more of us have a good home. But building homes for everyone isn't easy. That's where the Housing Partnership Network comes in. We harness the collective strength of our members - 100 leading community development organizations - to break down the barriers to building more safe, affordable homes. Our work centers on two key principles designed to disrupt how nonprofits traditionally get work done: the unmatched value of collaboration among industry leaders, and the increased returns of using a private enterprise mindset to achieve a social mission.