Springboard and MMI Team Up for $25M Housing Initiative

By Keith Loria, Contributing Writer

Riverside, Calif.—Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management Inc. has partnered with Money Management International to establish a $25 million dollar initiative designed to address the affordable housing crisis in the United States.

The joint venture aims to assist 5,000 families by providing affordable housing units in select markets across the nation.

“MMI is a nonprofit that specializes in financial literacy and credit counseling. Springboard is probably the first largest credit counseling in the country,” Lyle Lansdell, Springboard Housing’s president, tells MHN. “About a year ago, we started doing evaluations on how we could help our clients; people losing their homes, couldn’t get modifications or had credit issues. That’s when we came up with this initiative.”

Once MMI heard Springboard’s plan, it understood the vision and came on board to help.

“As an organization that has assisted nearly 600,000 struggling consumers through housing counseling services since the beginning of the financial crisis, we understand the hardships and the incredible financial strain faced by those in need,” Ivan Hand, MMI’s president and CEO, says. “We also know what it takes to assist these families in understanding their options and ultimately securing affordable housing.”

The way it will work is MMI and Springboard will become the joint sponsors of the $25 fund and will offer a 10 percent match.

“I think it will entice the investors to get into the fund,” Lyle says. “Our idea is to find people who would rather lease their money out for the public good. The idea is a small return for these investors, but at the same time knowing we are using the money to provide affordable housing, social conscious management and connecting residents to social services.”

After an exhaustive study by the two non-profits, a list of the hardest hit states was compiled of people making 50 to 80 percent of the area media income, with the fund set to help those so that current market rents are below 30 percent.

“We are looking at places where there’s going to be job growth in the future but yet the wages will not keep pace with the rents,” Lyle says. “We are trying to target markets where we really see some rents that can get out of whack, low income housing tax credits that are expiring or if there is an opportunity to buy a property, we will work with the local housing authority to put a regulatory agreement in place.”

According to HUD, there are 12 million American households paying more than 50 percent of their gross income on rent. In addition, nearly 1.5 million low to moderate-income housing complexes will lose their benefits in the next two years due to regulatory expirations.