Housing Opportunity 2014 - Federal Housing Policy Roundup, Jonathan Harwitz

Urban Land Institute, Housing Opportunity ConferenceFederal Housing Policy RoundupMay 15, 2014

Housing, Community Development and Health: Federal Policy Challenges and Opportunities

Jonathan HarwitzPolicy Director, Low Income Investment Fund

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Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)

• Mission-driven nonprofit community development financial institution founded in 1984

• Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

• Array of activities: Capital solutions, policy, technical assistance and programming

What We’ve Done

• 60,000 homes

• 242,000 child care slots

• 70,000 spaces for students

• 98,000 jobs created/retained

• 2,000 child care centers “greened”

• 60% carbon footprint reduction

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Our Impact

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$1.5 billion invested$1.5 billion invested

1.7 million people served1.7 million people served

$33 billion in social impact created$33 billion in social impact created

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A More Holistic, Integrated Approach

• Housing, education, health clinics, child care, transit access and safety

•Emerging understanding of the connections between physical and social capital

•Increasingly measurable connection between housing investments and healthcare expenditures

LIIF Federal Policy Priorities

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• Appropriations

• Treasury: CDFI Fund (FY 2015 proposed: $225 million)

• Education: Charter Schools Program (FY 2015 proposed: $248.5 million

• HHS/HRSA: Health Clinic funding (FY 2015 proposed: $800 million)

• HUD: rental assistance and capital programs incl. block grants

LIIF Federal Policy Priorities (cont.)

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• Tax/Mandatory Spending

• LIHTC

• NMTC (extension at $3.5 billion)

• ACA: ($5 billion funding for health clinics)

• Housing Finance/GSE

• Affordability strip/fee

• Capital Magnet Fund

Policy Update

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• HUD Appropriations FY 2015

• President’s Budget Proposal

• Impact of CBO scoring of FHA receipts

• House mark-up

• Capital Magnet Fund

• Housing Finance/GSE reform

• current law

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Examples of LIIF-Supported Projects and Initiatives

Capital Magnet Fund

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West End Health CenterDenver, CO

Financing• $500,000 tenant improvement loan• $58,000 CMF credit enhancement

Partners• Colorado Coalition for the Homeless• Colorado Health Foundation

• 7,400-square-foot facility provides primary care, mental health, substance abuse treatment, pharmacy and nursing services

• Co-located with a 101-unit affordable housing development with 50 supportive housing units for homeless families

• Projected to serve 1,200 Medicaid-qualified clients

Project Summary

Equitable Transit-Oriented Development

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National Partnerships

• Enterprise MOU

• CONNECT partnership with Living Cities

• HUD Sustainable Communities TA Grant sub-recipient with Institute for Sustainable Communities

Tier 2Tier 2AtlantaAtlanta

ChicagoChicagoClevelandCleveland

Salt Lake CitySalt Lake CityTwin CitiesTwin Cities

Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.

Learning CommunityLearning Community

HUD Sustainable Communities HUD Sustainable Communities GranteesGrantees

Tier 1Tier 1Bay AreaBay AreaDenverDenver

Los AngelesLos AngelesSeattleSeattle

Appendix: Detail on Capital Magnet Fund

Capital Magnet Fund (CMF)

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• Established by Congress through HERA in 2008 to provide flexible public funds to attract private capital investment into affordable housing projects

• Expected funding stream interrupted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorship

• FY 2010: CMF receives $80 million appropriation

• Included in President’s Budget

• CDFI Fund awarded funds to 23 groups serving 38 states

• 230 applicants requested $1 billion during application process

CMF FY 2010 Award Results (through July 2013)

Percent committed 78

Amount committed $62mm

Leverage 1:12

Total investment in communities $1bn

Affordable homes supported 6,803

Projects supported (including community and economic development)

189

Assistance to homebuyers 105

Jobs created/maintained (full-time and construction)

5,771

Key Ingredients of Success in FY 2010

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• Enterprise-level investment in high-capacity organizations

• Operationally sound (only 3.25% of grants used for operations)

• Sufficiently capitalized to bear risk

• Rapid capital deployment

• Capital deployed proved “magnetic”

• Awardees attracted 12 dollars for every dollar of CMF invested

• Flexibility enabled catalytic capital investments

• Purposes (e.g., ‘seed’ funding) and characteristics (e.g., ‘patience’) led

to rapid deployment and successful project outcomes