Rental Housing Development and HOME - Four Case Studies (HUD-1584-CPD, April 1996)

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The HOME Program provides a crucial source of financing for building or rehabilitating affordable rental housing; however, many jurisdictions will find that they need additional financial resources.

Once these financing sources have been secured, there exists a further challenge: to combine those financing sources in a way that meets the objectives and requirements of each funding source, while at the same time meeting the goals of a specific project or program.

This guide focuses on four communities that creatively and successfully employed HOME Program funds in conjunction with a range of private, local, state, and other federal resources to provide affordable rental housing.

The four communities profiled in this guide demonstrate the different ways in which communities may leverage and combine separate resources to enhance their affordable housing programs.

These profiles provide a sampling of the different funding sources that jurisdictions may use in tandem with HOME Program funds.

The city of Chicago, Illinois used HOME funds in conjunction with the Section 8/Single Room Occupancy Program; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania used HOME funds together with tax-exempt bond financing; Pinole, California combined HOME Program and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds; and Bentonville, Arkansas combined HOME with the Federal Home Loan Bank's Affordable Housing Program.

Different financial sources often have different requirements concerning affordability and rent levels, as well as tenant eligibility: this guide discusses which levels should control in each combination of funding sources.

It also provides the financing profile of each community's project and addresses the lessons learned through the successful combination of resources.