MidPen Housing, one of the most trusted nonprofit developers, owners and managers of high-quality affordable housing in Northern California, received $112,888,717 from California Housing Accelerator.
As part of the Governor’s California Comeback Plan, California established the Housing Accelerator program to help address the state’s long-term affordable housing shortfall by providing funding to shovel ready projects in lieu of tax credit equity. With these awards, MidPen Housing is expected to break ground on the following shovel-ready projects this summer:
- Foon Lok East, Oakland ($57.4M) – The final phase of Brooklyn Basin’s affordable housing component, Foon Lok East will begin construction on the remaining 124 affordable housing units, bringing a total 465 new homes for low-income families and seniors to Oakland’s waterfront.
- Mahonia Glen, Santa Rosa ($55.4M) – A $9.8M HCD Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant award grantee, Mahonia Glen will provide 99 affordable housing units for families, scheduled for summer 2022 construction start.
“When we launched the California Housing Accelerator, we had clear objectives – eliminate the backlog of projects standing in long lines for tax credits and bonds, bring affordable housing to communities in need, and reduce the amount of time and money involved to make these homes available,” said HCD’s Director Gustavo Velasquez. “We are pleased to partner with MidPen Housing to accelerate this much needed housing.”
“We’re building more housing for people at risk of homelessness to prevent folks from ending up on the streets, and we’re doing it faster than ever before,” said Governor Newsom. “We’re getting shovels in the ground in a matter of months, creating thousands of new affordable homes for people at the economic margins who need these new units the most.”
California Housing Accelerator is a new $1.75B HCD program funded with monies received from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund established by the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). The intent of this program is to reduce the backlog of projects “stuck” in the funding pipeline to accelerate the development of housing for those most in need. These funds will be used to fill funding gaps in shovel-ready projects that have received funding under other HCD programs and have been unable to access low-income housing tax credits.