Western States Net Affordable Housing Funding

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, or FHLBank San Francisco, has delivered $61.8 million in Affordable Housing Program grants to fund 59 projects set to host 4,000 units of affordable housing in Arizona, California and Nevada.

This funding, part of this year’s AHP grant cycle, represents an 88 percent increase over last year’s funding and underscores FHLBank San Francisco’s continued commitment to fulfilling its mission to support affordable housing throughout the western U.S. Each year, FHLBank San Francisco allocates up to 15% of its net profits from the prior year to fund affordable housing, homeownership and economic development grant programs.

Since 1990, FHLBank San Francisco has awarded $1.3 billion in AHP grants for the construction, preservation, or purchase of 154,000 units of housing. Collectively the Federal Home Loan Bank System is one of the largest private sources of affordable housing funding in the nation.

Widespread problem

The affordable housing crisis affects countless families and individuals living in urban, populous cities, rural, tribal communities, and many places in between, according to Alanna McCargo, president and CEO of FHLBank San Francisco.

According to The Gap 2024, a yearly report compiled by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the US has only 34 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income households nationwide.  That housing shortfall is particularly dire in Arizona, California and Nevada. Arizona and California have only 24 affordable and available homes per 100 households, while Nevada has just 14 per 100.

Recipients work to make the grant most valuable. For example, to reduce the use of new materials, five projects will repurpose existing structures, transforming a historic YWCA recreational center, a community health center, two motels, a medical facility and a school into new affordable housing.

Three tribal projects, two in Nevada and one in Arizona, received AHP awards totaling $3.5 million to create 87 units of affordable housing. Residents of these affordable housing developments will include seniors and low-income families who can receive supportive services onsite.

In Arizona, the grants represent a 54 percent increase and are being awarded to three important projects, creating 149 units of affordable housing in Tempe and Tucson.

In Tempe, La Victoria Commons, four percent LIHTC, is one of two projects situated within a newly constructed five-story building, which will create 52 units of affordable housing for low-income families and individuals. This multifamily affordable housing development is being built in collaboration with Raza Development Fund, and Copa Health. In Tempe, La Victoria Commons, nine percent, LIHTC, is the second of two multifamily projects being built in collaboration with Raza Development Fund and Copa Health. This affordable housing project will achieve a National Green Building Standards certification.

In Tucson, Ariz., meanwhile, new construction of Pascua Yaqui Homes X, in collaboration with Western Alliance Bank and Pascua Yaqui Tribe, will construct 45 multifamily units to house the elderly on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation.

The 2024 AHP California-based General Fund grants will fund a variety of projects including Community Land Trusts, commercial to residential property conversions, rehabilitation, and new construction that will benefit thousands of California residents.

Notable projects include a National City, project where a new construction, Union Tower, built in collaboration with Century Housing Corporation and Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation, will create 93 units for previously unhoused veterans and lower-income families and individuals.

In Hayward, a new construction, Hayward Senior Housing, in collaboration with Wells Fargo National Bank West and Christian Church Homes of Northern California, will create 79 units of affordable housing for seniors.

In Glendale, a former laboratory, medical office and school will be transformed into Harrower Village, a commercial-to-residential conversion property developed in collaboration with Wells Fargo National Bank West and Abode Communities, will create 40 units of affordable housing for seniors.

In Bolinas, a new construction of 31 Wharf Road, in collaboration with Bank of San Francisco and Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, will create eight affordable condominiums for low-income families.

In Fillmore, a new construction of Fillmore Terrace multifamily rental housing community, in collaboration with Montecito Bank & Trust and People’s Self-Help Housing Corporation, will create 50 units of affordable rental housing serving lower-income families, farmworker households and the formerly unhoused.

In Los Angeles, a former oil production facility will be transformed into The Arlington, a collaboration with Wells Fargo National Bank West and Kingdom Development, which will create 84 units of affordable housing for extremely low-income, unhoused individuals.

In Anderson, the new construction of Sunrise Cottages housing, in collaboration with Tri Counties Bank and Rural Communities Housing Development Corp., will create 45 units for low-income seniors, including previously unhoused seniors.

On Broadway, a 140-unit fully affordable housing community, broke ground in Sacramento, Calif., last year.