Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative Capitalizes on Public Private Partnership

Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.(www.enterprisecommunity.org/where-we-work/southeast/atlanta) ("Enterprise") convened an innovative public-sector collaborative initiative to strategize housing preservation in metro Atlanta in the face of growing concerns over the availability of affordable housing for low and moderate-income people. The collaborative meets bi-monthly and created a watchlist of properties which have one or more layers of subsidy (e.g. LIHTC, Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment contract, etc.) that are expiring, and thus the properties are at risk of losing affordability. Sara Haas, Senior Program Director for Enterprise, is the lead facilitator for the collaborative, whose partners include HUD, Invest Atlanta (www.investatlanta.com/), City of Atlanta Office of Housing and Community Development, Atlanta Housing (www.atlantahousing.org/) (formerly Atlanta Housing Authority), Atlanta BeltLine Inc.(https://beltline.org/), Atlanta Federal Home Loan Bank, and the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority.

"This is an exciting opportunity" says Jeremy Hudgeons, resolution specialist in HUD's Atlanta Regional Office of Multifamily Housing. "The partners at the table represent a who's who of public-sector players that have the potential to make a real positive impact on affordable housing preservation in Atlanta."

The collaboration provides an opportunity for partners to highlight specific properties requiring intervention, and the group is developing strategies to proactively engage property owners and identify additional private-sector partners to help preserve the affordability of these existing properties. At-risk properties that have a subsidy expiring in 2018 were discussed at the May meeting, and representatives from the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority presented trends in the LITHC market and the qualified contract process. Micheal German, HUD Georgia, Operations participated in the collaborative initiative and provided HUD cross programmatic expertise as well.

Next on the group's agenda is identifying the reservoir of naturally occurring affordable housing (affordable housing operating without subsidy) in metro Atlanta and developing strategies to preserve and stabilize these units.

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