D.C. announces $2M affordable housing fund for nonprofit developers

In order to help nonprofit developers secure capital for predevelopment soft costs, Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced a brand new $2 million fund, which will help developers be able to receive loans up to $100,000 per project. The fund is known as the Oramenta Newsome Predevelopment Loan Assistance Fund for Nonprofit Developers, or the Newsome Fund.

The fund, named after the late Oramenta Newsome, was established with the city’s $1 million Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) and $1 million from the D.C. Housing Finance Agency’s (DCHFA) McKinney Act Fund, according to a press release.

Starting June 1, 2018, funds will be available on a rolling basis with applicants able to submit funding requests at any time. To be eligible, developers will need to have a 1:1 match requirement for loan funds.

In a statement, D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Director Polly Donaldson said, “DHCD’s goal is to find new and innovative ways to remove any barriers to the production and preservation of more affordable housing in the District. We recognize that the predevelopment activities required of developers as part of a [request for proposals (RFP)] application ... have a substantial cost that can delay further momentum. This fund will help defray such costs, taking projects from vision to reality much faster.”

On why the fund was named after Newsome, Bowser said in a statement, “Oramanta made it her mission to serve the vulnerable, better neighborhoods across the District, and look out for long-time Washingtonians—in many ways, she wrote the book on D.C. values.”

A press release reports that the Bowser Administration has created more than 10,800 affordable units with 5,200 already in preconstruction.