LOS ANGELES COUNTY HOUSING INNOVATION FUND (LACHIF)

On April 4, 2006, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the Homeless Prevention Initiative which allocated $20 Million for the creation of an affordable housing revolving loan fund. The Los Angeles County Housing Innovation Fund, LLC, a joint venture betweenof the Low Income Investment Fund, Century Housing Corporation, and the Corporation for Supportive Housing will be administering the fund.

The LACHIF will provide financing for predevelopment and acquisition activities associated with affordable housing development. The maximum loan amount for acquisition loans may not exceed is $5 Million, and up to $750,000 is available which may include up to $750,000 for predevelopment activities. Projects eligible for funding must contain units that will serve households with incomes at or below 60 % of Area Median Income as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Los Angeles-Long Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area. Projects located in cities where a revolving loan fund exists, will be referred to the city's revolving loan fund. Applicants may be for profit or non profit developers, cities, or redevelopment agencies. Applicants must also comply with lender underwriting criteria.

"Affordable housing scarcity remains a top concern of many Los Angeles County residents, even after the burst of the housing market," Molina said. "When Supervisor (Yvonne B.) Burke and I first entertained the idea of this revolving loan fund in 2005, a decent one-bedroom apartment rented for about $1,200 a month. A minimum-wage employee would have had to work over 130 hours per week to afford it- and rents have only increased since then. So have interest rates and construction costs, which makes affordable housing all the more difficult not just to find but to build. This revolving loan fund will give developers who are looking to construct affordable housing easier access to capital- which, in turn, would increase the supply of affordable housing. That is precisely what we need to help mitigate Los Angeles County's affordable housing crisis."

Parties interested in additional information concerning the LACHIF may contact:

Brian Prater at the Low Income Investment Fund at (415) 489-6129 or bprater@liifund.org; or

Stephen Peelor at Century Housing Corporation at (310) 642-2034 or speelor@centuryhousing.org; or

Neil McGuffin at Corporation for Supportive Housing at (213) 623-4342. or neil.mcguffin@csh.org.