Pamela Martineau Author Archives

Office vacancies throughout the nation have reached a 30-year high and the country is amid an affordable housing crisis. These dual inflection points have increased housing advocates’ focus on conversions of commercial real estate into housing and encouraged federal and local governments to assist in the transformations.

Minnesotans hoping to bolster the state’s affordable housing stock may donate to affordable housing projects, requesting to have their donation allocated to a specific project or a general affordable housing fund and receive a tax credit of 85 percent of their donation through a new state program.

Launched through federal legislation in 2012, the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has leveraged over $19.3 billion in construction investment to improve or construct over 174,000 public housing units and 53,000 Section 8, tax credit and market-rate apartments co-located in these public housing communities.

A lack of workforce housing is a growing element of the nation’s housing crisis and some developers who typically build affordable housing are creatively pulling together financing for housing projects for workers who make above area median income (AMI) but cannot afford market-rate rents.

Looking to bring their philanthropic missions into their own backyards, an increasing number of faith-based organizations are building affordable housing projects on their properties, often with the help of new local and state laws.

Developers and affordable housing advocates looking to provide detailed presentations or facilitate discussions on how local governmental policies impact housing affordability need look no further than the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) Housing Affordability Toolkit.

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), approved by Congress in 2000, is a critical element of financing for community projects and businesses in distressed communities.

Looking to instruct an employee on the correct way to plunge a toilet or use a ladder?

Modular affordable housing projects—with their quick construction timelines and cost savings compared with traditional stick-build projects—are gaining in popularity, but the projects present unique challenges in terms of financing, development expertise and site selection.

Launched in 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods program has been transforming communities across the nation through Planning and Implementation Grants that breathe new life into distressed affordable housing projects and surrounding neighborhoods.

Decades ago, people often equated standardized design in affordable housing with cookie-cutter, identical buildings and individual units with the same layouts and color schemes.

Income averaging allows affordable housing developers to expand the range of people on the income strata who are eligible to live in affordable communities, while also helping projects pencil out.