We Made A Difference! Affordable Home Builders Testify To PMIB On Bond Freeze Impact

(as reported by Housing CA)

THIRTY AFFORDABLE-HOME BUILDERS TESTIFY AT POOLED MONEY INVESTMENT BOARD MEETING
50,071 Affordable Rental and For-Sale Homes and 93,400 Jobs Now at Risk

More than 30 affordable-home developers, lenders, and local housing agencies spoke at yesterday's meeting of the Pooled Money Investment Board (PMIB), highlighting the devastating effects of the frozen state financing for home developments.

Nonprofit and for-profit developers and lenders from throughout the state traveled from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura, and the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the hearing. They revealed the broad and specific impacts of the stalled bond funds, including:

• A halt in construction on 50,071 affordable rental and for-sale homes in 792 developments throughout the state.
• 93,400 lost jobs once construction is halted or delayed.
• High monetary penalties for developers (and potentially, the state) for failure to repay bank loans on time.
• Millions of additional expenditures for developers (and potentially the state) in the form of high interest rates on temporary bank loans.
• In the worse case, foreclosure of the affordable homes by banks who provided construction loans. In a foreclosure situation, millions of local and state money already invested in homes will be lost and the affordable rents or sales prices will convert to market rates. Additionally, the state may be held liable for millions of dollars in private capital already invested in the development.

Developers, lenders, and local housing agencies urged the board to make affordable-home developments a top priority for funding when bonds are sold.

"Affordable-home production is unique among state bond-funded activities in that the state's investment leverages millions of dollars of private capital, thereby stimulating the crippled credit markets," said Julie Snyder, Housing California's Policy Director. "Affordable-home production must be a top priority when bond funds are unfrozen. Building homes not only creates jobs and much-needed affordable places to live, but these public-private partnerships also stimulate California's economy in a unique way."

Within the long list of threatened developments, developers also suggested the board prioritize completed developments that are waiting for funds to pay off construction loans, as well as developments currently under construction with outstanding bills.

Affordable-home developers throughout the state have compiled comprehensive lists of the affected affordable-home developments, including how many leveraged (or multiplier) dollars and jobs will be lost if bond money is not released immediately. A partial listing of affected developments is available on the Housing California website (http://www.housingca.org/resources/PMIB-impacts-on-ah.pdf ) and Housing California is providing additional information -- by region -- upon request.

Affordable-home builders, lenders, and local housing agencies who attended the February 18, 2009, PMIB hearing included:

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San Diego
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-- Affirmed Housing Group (Anna Scott)
-- Chelsea Investment Company (Wally Dieckmann)
-- Father Joe's Villages (Matthew Packard)
-- Townspeople (Jon Derryberry)

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Los Angeles, Ventura,
and Orange Counties
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-- Abode Communities (Holly Phillips)
-- Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (Dan Hardy)
-- Coalition for Response Community Development (Mark Wilson)
-- Enterprise Community Investment (Keith Kiecker)
-- Jamboree Housing Corporation
-- Little Tokyo Service Center, a Community Development Corporation (Josh Ishimatsu)
-- LINC Housing (Conor Wier)

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San Francisco Bay Area
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-- Affordable Housing Associates (Neil Saxby)
-- Burbank Housing (John Lowry)
-- Community Economics (Elissa Dennis)
-- Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association (Dana Cleary)
-- Eden Housing (Linda Mandolini)
-- Mid-Peninsula Housing Corporation (Nevada Merriman)
-- Resource for Community Development (Lisa Motoyama)
-- Salvation Army (Preston Rider)
-- Satellite Housing (Sherry Keith)

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Central Valley
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-- Sacramento Habitat for Humanity (Ken Cross)
-- Sacramento Mutual Housing Association (Holly Wunder)

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Statewide
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-- Bridge Housing Corporation (Carol Galante)
-- California Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies (Mary Ellen Shay)
-- California Coalition for Rural Housing (Rob Wiener)
-- California Housing Consortium (Dan Lopez)
-- Corporation for Supportive Housing (Sharon Rapport)
-- Housing California (Julie Snyder)
-- Mercy Housing California (Jeff Riley)
-- U.S. Bank (John Chen)