Center for Public Enterprise

We've been glad to work with the City of Kingston, who is now seeking information from potential development partners for a mixed-income program similar to Montgomery County's Housing Production Fund.

PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY: For the past few months, it's been great working with the Center for Public Enterprise to determine how the City of Kingston could create a mixed-income public development model to support the City's aggressive housing creation goals. With CPE's support, I hope that Kingston will be the first in New York State to use this public development model. Already, in places like Montgomery County, Maryland, this model has been shown to be a win-win: The City will create deeply affordable housing units with a minimal amount of public equity investment while a developer is able to overcome traditional financing challenges to get a project built. I have a new Request for Information now out to gather input from any development partners interested in partnering with the City. Responses are due January 8 and an information session will be held on December 6th. All the info is here: https://lnkd.in/gEFQhwbf

Last week, we released a summary of the results of a survey, conducted in partnership with the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), of housing finance agencies across the country. We wanted to better understand how agencies were using HUD's HFA Risk Sharing program and what improvements could be made to increase housing production. Since 2001, the Risk Share program has helped HFAs finance or refinance over 1,771 loans, totaling nearly $18.7 billion in principal and supporting more than 210,247 affordable rental homes. Surveyed agencies expect to use Risk Share to fund over?100 projects?representing nearly?10,000 units?in 2024 alone.?Recent changes to the program make it even more likely agencies will use this program for new construction. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ebX_PMMp

At #ClimateWeekNYC I had the opportunity to speak at the New York Stock Exchange and the Jain Family Institute about the Center for Public Enterprise, the Inflation Reduction Act, the role the public sector can play in driving decarbonization, and the financial tools policymakers can deploy to that end. I got to engage in amazing discussions about the role financial markets play in industrial policy and—perhaps most ambitiously—how public sector-led financial engineering can ensure that private markets don’t treat vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure as credit risks. (And, at NYSE, I got to tour the trading floor!) Thanks so much to ICE and the Jain Family Institute for two stellar events, particularly Evan Kodra and Nolan Lindquist at each. I’m particularly grateful to Jeff Gitterman and Melanie Brusseler for their moderating roles, to my co-panelists—at JFI, Kerry O'Neill, Steve Boyd, and David Burton; and at ICE, Priya Parrish, Karl Burkart, and Jon Williams—and to everyone else I spoke to!

CPE goes to Washington. This morning, our Executive Director Paul Williams testified before the Senate Budget Committee on financing constraints for multifamily development, and opportunities to ease those constraints. Here's his response to a question from Senator Van Hollen, where he explains how Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission's Housing Production Fund enables the development of mixed-income housing outside of traditional subsidies. Read Paul's full testimony to the Committee here: https://lnkd.in/eAxSwWXb

I'll have the honor of testifying to the Senate Budget Committee tomorrow morning. I'll be speaking about financing constraints for multifamily development, and opportunities to ease those constraints. Tune in here tomorrow morning: https://lnkd.in/e3w5sJnR

NYPA VP of Renewables Vennela Yadhati, P.E. spoke at the Center for Public Enterprise's "Emerging Development Strategies from Public Authorities" panel for #ClimateWeekNYC, where she shared how the Inflation Reduction Act supports NYPA's work to develop and deploy #cleanenergy projects across #NewYorkState. Additional guests included speakers from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) DOE Loan Programs Office, Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority, Center for Public Enterprise and Heatmap News.

Very big news for Atlanta, and for the model pioneered by Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission. Last week, HOC hosted the groundbreaking (which Center for Public Enterprise was honored to attend!) for their second project, Hillandale Gateway, a 463-unit development split across two buildings, both built to Passive House standards. $35 million from their housing production fund is going into that project. Atlanta Urban Development Corporation has now closed on its first project using funding from their own revolving loan fund, using $6.5 million from their housing production fund to help deliver 137 units. By CPE's count, there are over 3,000 units in the mixed-income public development pipeline and roughly $283M in revolving loan funds across the country!

Fantastic groundbreaking ceremony for Housing Opportunities Commission’s latest Housing Production Fund project, Hillandale Gateway. Zachary Marks

If you'll be in New York City for Climate Week, join the Center for Public Enterprise at our public events! On Monday, Paul Williams is on a panel with public-sector climate leaders at the U.S. Treasury, New York Power Authority, and the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority discussing how the IRA enables public development. On Tuesday, I'm on a panel hosted by the Jain Family Institute with leaders in public and private climate finance from the DOE Loan Programs Office, Inclusive Prosperity Capital, and Norton Rose Fulbright and moderated by Melanie Brusseler at Common Wealth. We'll all chat about how the IRA has changed the domestic green investment landscape. See you in NYC! CPE's event schedule & registration links: https://lnkd.in/eY2E8uXy