Grant

Ohio Capital Finance Corporation ($1,000,000)

Program-Related Investment

Ohio Capital Finance Corporation ($4,000,000)

Background

Ohio has seen a steady increase in demand for affordable rental housing due, in part, to an unemployment rate consistently higher than the national average and, more recently, the exponential rise in foreclosures throughout rural and urban communities. Over the next ten years, Ohio faces the potential loss of a significant amount – nearly a quarter (43,000 units) – of its subsidized rental housing stock.

Project Description

Three statewide organizations have crafted a comprehensive strategy that builds upon their respective expertise and resources. This partnership (Ohio Preservation Compact) is led by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), which allocates the state’s financial resources and provides policy leadership. Its key partners include the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), which provides technical assistance to increase affordable housing and has an exceptional approach to engaging tenants. Completing the partnership is the Ohio Capital Finance Corporation (OCFC) and its parent company Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, which supplies predevelopment, acquisition, and bridge financing to launch preservation projects. OCFC was the first winner (2007) of the MacArthur Foundation-supported Wachovia NEXT Award for Innovation in Financing.

The grant will fund the creation of a comprehensive, web-accessible database of all federally-subsidized properties and enhance outreach efforts to property owners and tenants. COHHIO will undertake a comprehensive analysis of the newly collected data to generate profiles of properties with impending subsidy contract expirations to prioritize its preservation activities. This clearinghouse of information on federally-subsidized properties will allow various parties, including tenants and affordable housing developers, to identify and evaluate prospective preservation opportunities. Most of the outreach is expected to result in the transfer of the federally-subsidized property to a new nonprofit organization that will maintain the property’s federal subsidy. In these situations, COHHIO also will provide technical assistance to the nonprofit, including sharing the results of any feasibility studies that explored how the property could be preserved. The Ohio Preservation Compact staff will coordinate the extensive set of services offered by all three partners, which has provided technical assistance for several years to affordable housing developers, owners, managers and tenants on such topics as tax credit compliance, fair housing, and project development and financing. In addition, the staff will help enhance outreach materials and efforts to engage tenants in preservation activities.

The program-related investment will help establish a preservation loan fund to provide nonprofits and for profit developers with low-cost acquisition and predevelopment financing. Administered by OCFC, the preservation loan fund will be a revolving fund anticipated to be initially capitalized at $25,000. Flexible underwriting guidelines, including below-market interest rates, will allow less well-capitalized nonprofit organizations to compete with market investors to purchase properties with expiring rental subsidy contracts.

Contact

Kelly Taylor – Director of Communication and Marketing
Ohio Housing Finance Agency
57 E. Main Street
Columbus, OH 43215
614-728-4270
ktaylor@ohiohome.org

Mary Kay Meagher – Director of Operations and Communications
Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing
88 E. Broad Street, Suite 1800
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614-224-8446
MMeagher@OCCH.org

Suzanne Gravette Acker – Director, Communications/Development
Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio
175 S. Third Street, Suite 250
Columbus, OH 43215
614-280-1984
suzannegacker@cohhio.org