MacArthur Announces Major Rental Initiative;
NeighborWorks Network Affiliates Included

November 14, 2003 -- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced a 10-year, $50-million effort to preserve and improve affordable rental housing –- in what Jonathan F. Fanton, foundation president, called "an essential component of a balanced national housing supply."

The bulk of the funds -- $35 million in grants and program-related investments -- will go to selected national and regional nonprofits with large rental housing portfolios to acquire, rehab and refinance units that might otherwise be lost to low- and moderate-income renters.

Another $10 million will go to specialized lending intermediaries that provide flexible, high-risk capital for preservation transactions, and $5 million will support research, policy analysis, and public education on pressures threatening affordable rental housing and strategies for overcoming them.

Two NeighborWorks organizations –- AHC Inc. of Arlington, Virginia, and Community Housing Partners Corporation of Christianburg, Virginia -– and a related NeighborWorks® capital corporation –- Neighborhood Capital Corp. -– are among the MacArthur recipients to date.

"The MacArthur Foundation has shown tremendous leadership in their "Window of Opportunity" program," said Francie Ferguson, manager of the NeighborWorks Multifamily Initiative. "In addition to providing generous and needed financial investments in the critical area of preserving affordable rental housing, they are also designing this program to truly advance the field of knowledge and policy. It’s an honor that the NeighborWorks Multifamily Initiative’s activities in asset management have been useful to MacArthur’s staff and we’re thrilled that AHC, Community Housing Partners and Neighborhood Capital Corporation can benefit from and contribute to this pioneering effort."

AHC received a $1.5-million in risk and working capital from the foundation. Its preservation targets are properties with expiring federal subsidies in high-cost suburbs and distressed urban neighborhoods in Virginia and Maryland.

Community Housing Partners Corporation received $2 million in risk and working capital. Its preservation targets are a mix of larger, unassisted properties as well as smaller, distressed properties in urban suburban and rural areas throughout the Southeast, with concentrations in Florida and Virginia.

Neighborhood Capital Corp. received $2 million in a low-cost, long-term loan to help attract significant additional capital from public and private sources. Its projected preservation loans in 2004-2008 are $10.2 million for acquisition and improvement of properties by members of the NeighborWorks Multifamily Initiative.

The funding is part of a MacArthur initiative, "Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing," designed, among other things, to preserve 100,000 existing affordable rental units.

Other objectives are to encourage additional preservation investment by public and private sources and stimulate public policies to preserve at least 1 million affordable rental units in the next 10 years.

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