The big picture
Presented by Veronica Garcia, NHSD director, the presentation gave details on one project designed to increase affordable rental housing stock and another that seeks to build more homes for residents to own.
“With both [request for proposals], we will invite partners to bring projects that align with their housing priorities, looking for projects that are shovel-ready, that are located near amenities with services for the residents who live there, all in the aim of creating long-term affordable housing,” Garcia said.
The proposal for rental housing production, rehabilitation, preservation and acquisition will cost approximately $14.4 million and will use $10 million from the 2022 housing bond funds and $4.4 million from federal grants.
As part of the proposal, at least 15% of the units must be affordable to households earning less than 30% of the area median income, which is roughly $26,000 for a family of three. Garcia said these projects will be shovel-ready and will be located near amenities and transit lines, especially the upcoming green and silver advanced rapid transit systems.
The homeownership project will facilitate the creation of new affordable housing for low-to-moderate-income families. The criteria also note that the target families will earn up to 80% AMI. The project is estimated to cost $2.3 million and will be funded through federal grants.
Garcia said gap funding—which is used to fund projects that have a shortage of funds—will be used to support these projects.
“Gap funding supports both the creation and preservation of affordable housing in alignment with our Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, and it helps guide development toward our community's priorities. This funding, what it does is it helps close a financial shortfall between the project costs, what it costs to build, and what traditional financing and the project revenues can cover. It's really the critical piece that makes a project possible,” Garcia said.
After the briefing, District 9 council member Misty Spears expressed an interest in incentivizing senior citizens and those with disabilities to apply for affordable housing.
"I'm really concerned about the affordable housing for seniors, and I really like to see a way that we can encourage incentives for our seniors for affordable housing and also persons with disabilities. And the reasoning is because many times they don't have another opportunity to create income," Spears said.
District 10 council member Marc Whyte noted a need for the city to track benefits associated with affordable housing.
"My only question is this: is the city tracking any outcomes related to broader community benefits from affordable housing in terms of local job growth, workforce participation, other economic indicators reflecting community benefits or neighborhood improvement?" Whyte said.
Fiscal year 2025-26 gap funding timeline:
- Oct 20: Financing Affordable and Impactful Housing Resources, or FAIR, subcommittee recommendations
- Oct. 31: Housing commission presolicitation
- Nov. 12: B Session presolicitation
- Dec. 2-Jan. 16: Request for proposals open, accepting applications
- Feb. 9-13: Evaluation meetings
- Feb: Housing commission post-solicitation
- March 2026: City Council B session post-solicitation
- April 2: City Council approval
Since housing bond project parameters were set in 2022, NHSD has worked in five categories of housing production and rehabilitation, such as homeownership rehabilitation, rental housing acquisition, permanent supportive housing and homeownership production. According to city documents, the Affordable Housing Bond creates high-quality homes near jobs, schools, transit and neighborhoods. Approximately $129.5 million in funds have been committed, with $9 million used to purchase property near or along the future green line, silver line and in the urban core.
