FHLBank Atlanta Pays $8.3M for N.C. Affordable Housing

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) has awarded $8.3 million to assist in funding 18 affordable housing projects in North Carolina. The funding is part of $42.7 million that FHLBank Atlanta will award in 11 states and the District of Columbia to create or preserve more than 4,800 units of affordable housing as part of the 2010 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) offering.

Local developers, in partnership with FHLBank Atlanta member institutions, will use the money to build or repair affordable housing. As a result of this particular disbursement of funds, 789 affordable housing units will be developed or repaired in Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Wilmington and 11 other North Carolina cities.

AHP is a competitive-funding program that helps develop owner-occupied and rental housing for very low-, low- and moderate-income families, typically less than 80 percent of an area’s median household income. FHLBank Atlanta awards the funds annually to its member financial institutions and their community housing partners.

Even as the 2010 awards are being paid out, the FHLBank Atlanta is preparing to accept applications, both from member financial institutions and their local development partners, for the 2011 AHP. Grant funds of up to $1 million per awarded project are available, with an application deadline of June 10.

FHLBank Atlanta is one of 12 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the purpose of which is to allow local lending institutions borrow funds to finance housing, economic development and infrastructure. The system has about 7,800 member institutions nationwide, including community banks, credit unions, community development financial institutions and insurance companies. The system, which is not taxpayer funded and thus not currently under the budget-cutting gun, has contributed about $4 billion to AHP since 1990.