You asked for descriptions of innovative affordable housing programs in other states, including programs in Illinois and Massachusetts.

SUMMARY

We found seven innovative state affordable housing programs. One each in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont. Programs in Illinois and Massachusetts are described in OLR report 2005-R-0658 (attached). The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOME Investments Partnership Program helped fund the other five programs, and HUD recognized them in 2005 with “HOME Door Knocker Awards. ” HUD gives these awards to state and local governments for outstanding work in providing affordable housing to low-income and underserved people, according to HUD's website.

HUD provided the information for each program described below.

The HOME Program provides gap financing for various activities, including construction of single family and rental housing for low-income families. A town, most often in partnership with a local nonprofit group or with a housing authority, individual, or for-profit developer, can use program funding to build affordable housing and other projects. In existence since 1990, the HOME Program is the largest federal block grant program for local production of affordable housing, according to HUD. (Connecticut's annual HOME allocation is $ 12 to $ 14 million, according the Department of Economic and Community Development, which administers the program. )

CALIFORNIA

The California Housing and Community Development Department and Housing Finance Agency, banks, and a nonprofit corporation worked with San Diego to redevelop a 56-unit apartment complex for low-income families, in particular for the region's growing agricultural worker population.

The city bought the property with HOME funds and sold it to the nonprofit Community Housing Works for $ 1. Construction began in 2001 and the complex opened fully occupied in 2004. Initial rents for the one to three bedroom units ranged from $ 250 to $ 850 per month, with (1) 10 units reserved for agricultural worker households and (2) four units set-aside for household in which one adult is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The project includes a child-care center, a computer lab, and is near public transportation.

OREGON

The state, working with the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development and nonprofits, also developed affordable housing to help meet the needs of seasonal agricultural workers. Working with its partners, the state used HOME funds to construct four bedroom units, a size that is difficult to find in the market there, for larger agricultural workers' families. By using HOME funds, other financing became available to construct a community garden, children's play ground, computer lab, and a larger meeting room.

RHODE ISLAND

The State of Rhode Island's Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation oversees a program that makes use of HUD HOME funds and bank loans to buy land and rehabilitate or construct affordable single-family properties. The developer, the nonprofit Church Community Housing Corporation (CCHC), works to make the eventual cost of the house about the same as the bank loan.

The houses are then sold to low-income, first time buyers. Keeping costs down, they sell only the building and improvements and CCHC maintains ownership of the underlying land. CCHC then grants the owner a 99-year ground lease for a small fee. Resale is restricted to other low- or moderate-income families.

Since its inception 10-years ago, the program has preserved 76 affordable units throughout Newport County, where prices are high.

TENNESSEE

Tennessee's Housing Development Agency worked with a nonprofit developer, banks, and the local government, using HOME funds to help develop a 29-unit townhouse development in Nashville. They used HOME funds for construction and finance of 11 units. For these units, $ 14,999 in HOME funds remained for each to reduce closing costs for the low-income purchasers. Furthermore, the nonprofit developer used an architectural firm that designed the HOME units to be indistinguishable from the regular market units.

The project was part of Tennessee's Bicentennial Neighborhood Initiative, which provided funding to eight local jurisdictions “to preserve or create livable, mixed income communities that provide and alternative to sprawl. ”

VERMONT

Vermont's Department of Housing and Community Affairs and its Housing and Conservation Board give preference in administering HOME Program funds to affordable housing projects that rehabilitate historic properties in town centers and “downtown locations” throughout Vermont.

“The state has developed a network of qualified design and construction professionals who focus on affordable housing projects, resulting in a more consistent level of quality and predictable costs. ”

More than 800 of these units, which must remain affordable forever, have been developed.

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