Oakland Seeks To Fund Affordable Housing Projects
Oakland plans to help finance two projects that will add more than 500 affordable housing units, the city council decided yesterday.
The council approved partial financing for affordable housing in the Brooklyn Basin project (location above). Under the deal, affordable housing developer MidPen Housing would receive $45M in property tax funding to support 465 affordable housing units in the development. The city will need approval from the state Department of Finance to make the loan.
The affordable housing component of the Brooklyn Basin project will require an additional $178.5M in funding, which is expected to come from the city, state and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
The city council also approved lending up to $11.6M to UrbanCore and the nonprofit Oakland Economic Development Corp to support Coliseum Transit Village, a 110-unit project with 55 affordable units. The developers of that project would not have to pay back the loan as long as half of the units remain affordable.
The city is asking UrbanCore and the Oakland Economic Development Corp to contribute $1.25M to the $41M project, which would be largely funded through government grants and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
The development has been controversial. The city lent $400k for the project in 2013, stating that it would not need to be paid back until the project was finished. Then the nonprofit lost its tax-exempt status, which it recently regained. [SFBT, SFC]
