MHU’s Housing Investment Team: Advancing Policies and Programs to Fairly Fund Affordable Housing
Most Spiderman fans are familiar with the quote, “with great power comes great responsibility”. The Housing Investment Team (HIT) embodies this sentiment well, as they are deciding force for a significant portion of Washington’s affordable multifamily housing stock. Many of us are aware that the demand for affordable housing far exceeds Washington’s supply: read this UW report to learn more about the current state of Washington’s housing crisis. What we may not know is the complexity required to build affordable housing, as projects routinely require millions of dollars to be fully financed, and are subject to a number of state and local requirements to ensure the health and safety of project residents and surrounding communities. HIT oversees the first crucial step in building more affordable housing by implementing funding policies and awarding funds from both state and federal sources, which in collaboration with other public funders, leads to construction and rehabilitation for the purpose of housing vulnerable Washingtonians.
Notices of Funding Availability
The Housing Investment Team is responsible for a number of NOFA (Notice of Funding Availability) processes, in which they announce funding opportunities. They are also responsible for overseeing the scoring of applications and making award recommendations. More crucially, the team develops application criteria that helps to determine how a limited amount of public funding can most effectively activate housing that serves some of the most vulnerable Washingtonians. Members of the Housing Investment Team also collaborate with the Community Advisory Team, which invites those with lived experience of housing insecurity to the decision making table when building out NOFAs, knowing that a diversity of voices will make award funding more equitable across the state.
Jennifer Lane highlights the importance of simple and clear communication when developing these NOFAs: “we all work to identify how to improve bureaucratic burdens. We work hard to simplify the process, use more plain talk…and recognize barriers for residents and barriers for applicants …. [we] want to demystify the process.”
Technical Assistance support
Steeped in highly technical knowledge, members of HIT understand more than most how complex it is to develop affordable housing, which is why the team also provides programming that helps emerging developers understand application and contract requirements in order to improve their chances of being awarded.
Sean Harrington leads a number of technical assistance opportunities, including a program called Capacity Building, Outreach, and Support (CBOS), in which HIT prioritizes developers serving underserved community members, such as those who are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, or those living in rural areas. In technical assistance sessions and in all outreach, Sean believes in trying to be as transparent and honest with people as possible. He makes sure to communicate that due to the great amount of financial and legal obligations, developers must be well prepared. Sean also recognizes that he learns a lot from funding applicants about the needs of housing providers, striving for his team to perpetually provide more helpful guidance to prospective housing developers.
Members of HIT also acknowledge that even with assistance, the application process is onerous for many housing developers. Instead of disqualifying applications with missing information, the team regularly works with applicants to add missing information for a clearer picture of their ability to develop affordable housing.
For those interested in developing affordable housing, the question lingers: ‘what does the Housing Investment Team recommend to those considering affordable housing development’?
Sean advises a realistic amount of project detail: applications that are most successful are from applicants who include precise details about their capacity and plans, and have a good understanding of who they want to serve. Additionally, he wants to highlight that an applicant doesn’t need to have many successful projects under their belt: organizations of all sizes can be successful with the right amount of support.
You can see the outcome of HIT’s efforts when we announce this year’s awards from WA Housing Trust Fund, National Housing Trust Fund, and HOME program funding – to be announced by the end of December via email and on the Funding Opportunities for Multifamily Rental Housing webpage.