Congress authorized the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program to address the daunting backlog of capital repairs in the nation’s public housing stock and to stem the loss of affordable units. PHAs can now use RAD Component I to access private debt and equity to fund repairs and stabilize properties. In March, Congress expanded eligibility requirements under the RAD program and raised the unit cap.
After considering your options, you’ve decided to pursue a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversion. Now what? (more…)
Borrowers seeking financing for multifamily properties, or properties with five or more units, may be eligible for a loan through HUD. HUD supports all types of multifamily financing, from acquisition, to refinance, to sub rehab and new construction. (more…)
In March, Congress passed HR 1625, or the 2018 Omnibus Spending Bill. This bill brought about many important changes for the affordable housing community and funds the Federal Government for the remainder of the 2018 fiscal year. (more…)
By Mark Olshaker
April 2018
“I really like RAD projects,” declares Holly Bray, senior director of originations for Love Funding in Washington, DC. “You’re in the weeds, helping authorities take their housing stocks and making them great. There are a lot of things to figure out and a lot of coordination. But the end result is truly rewarding.” (more…)
Financing for affordable housing communities can get tricky. It oftentimes requires a combination of debt and equity sources and a complex analysis of available financing tools. Love Funding has done it all. Our team has extensive experience underwriting HUD-insured loans involving tax-exempt bonds, low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), historic tax credits, new market tax credits, Section 8 rental contracts and various government programs for subordinated loans or grants. Here our experts answer some of the most common affordable housing finance questions:
Love Funding closed two loans totaling $16.4 million to build a new multifamily housing community for low-income residents in Ecorse, Michigan. Renaissance Estates of Ecorse is being built in two concurrent phases on the land that previously held the Wade H. McCree Plaza and Voisine Terraces Apartments. The project will replace the current units built between 1952 and 1962 with 200 affordable housing units spread across 16 new residential buildings. (more…)
By Mark Dellonte, Opinion Contributor — Published 10/27/17 10:15 AM EDT on The Hill
In many public housing communities around the country, conditions are quickly becoming unlivable. Collectively, public housing authorities (PHAs) face a backlog of $26 billion in deferred maintenance and it’s growing by the day because the properties continue to age and the PHAs have fewer resources than ever before to maintain them. The problem is made all the more pressing by the fact that roughly nine out of every 10 households that live in public housing include minor, elderly or disabled family members. (more…)
Love Funding, one of the nation’s leading providers of FHA multifamily, affordable and healthcare financing, announced the closing of a $5.3 million loan to substantially rehabilitate a 96-unit apartment community in Deerfield Beach, Florida, and preserve its affordable status through a unique FHA program.
Stanley Terrace was built in 1969 as a traditional public housing development, but in 2014, the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority applied for and received acceptance to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.
The RAD program was created by HUD in 2014 to convert public housing units to long-term Section 8 contracts, allowing the units to remain affordable to low-income households. Rather than having to apply annually for operation and management subsidies through the federal public housing budget, the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority was able to convert those funds into Section 8 rental subsidies. This allows them to offer market rents, since the rental assistance makes the units affordable. Consequently, the Authority can operate and renovate the property with debt that is supported by net income, like any other property owner.
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The HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program is entering its second major phase with a full head of steam. The program’s initial cap of 60,000 units has tripled and now sits at 185,000. What’s more, the proposed 2015-16 federal budget would impose no limit at all on the program going forward.
The rising popularity of the program speaks to its effectiveness as a means of converting the public housing stock of this country to private ownership. The driver is the program’s design: Allowing existing subsidies the projects are receiving through housing authority budgets to be transferred to direct rent payments. This enables private investors to take part in recapitalizing and modernizing the rental housing inventory by partnering with PHAs. They can finance the improvements with market rate debt, Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), and/or other state or local subsidies when they are made available.
In addition, the cost of that capital is particularly enticing. The market rate financing is most often insured with FHA multifamily mortgage insurance, which results in very low interest rates. This incentivizes investors to borrow as much as they can to maximize the repairs and improvements and boost their own returns.