By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX
The City of Phoenix Housing Department has recently issued a solicitation to gauge developers’ interest in building and/or rehabilitating more affordable rental housing.
The Call for Interest, approved by Phoenix City Council on November 6th, allows the Housing Department to “facilitate construction, acquisition, and/or rehabilitation of affordable rental housing by providing financing at very low interest rates or through forgivable notes,” according to the CFI.
The city is looking for developers, either non-profit or for-profit, and/or eligible Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) with experience in developing quality affordable housing geared toward the homeless and special needs populations.
Some of the types of projects the City of Phoenix is looking for include:
- Affordable rental housing
- Permanent and/or transitional housing for homeless veterans
- Permanent and/or transitional housing for homeless youth
- Special needs housing for victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking, people with disabilities, people recovering from substance abuse, People living with HIV/Aids and households at or below the 40 percent Area Median Income
According to the CFI, the city wants to identify the projects that can be “supported by [the Housing Department] and can be fully underwritten for recommendation of funding to the Phoenix City Council. Before projects are recommended to City Council, all information requested in the Affordable Housing Loan Application must be provided.”
Funding
For the 2019-2020 CFI specifically, the Phoenix City Council approved $6M in HOME funding. According to the council documents $828K of that allocation must be awarded to CHDOs.
“The remaining funds will allow for an estimated five to six affordable housing project awards with a maximum award of $1M.”
According to the CFI, “The City will apply HOME funds after all other construction financing has been exhausted.”
Call for Interest Details
A non-mandatory pre-submittal conference is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on December 5th and will take place at Aeroterra Community Center, 1725 E. McKinley Street. Offers will be due no later than 2:00 p.m. on February 4th, 2020.
All offers must be submitted to the City of Phoenix’s Housing Department, 251 W. Washington, 4th floor.
The city “is requesting applications that describe projects ready to begin construction at the time of application or which will be ready to begin construction in 2020 or early 2021,” the CFI states.