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Explanation of ELI units in HPD's housing projects and challenges in advancing the pipeline
0:58:30
ยท
135 sec
Kim Darga, Deputy Commissioner for Development at HPD, explains the inclusion of Extremely Low Income (ELI) units in their housing projects and discusses challenges in advancing the project pipeline.
- All new construction and most preservation projects include ELI units
- HPD prioritizes buildings with deeper affordability and urgent needs
- Federal resource limitations, particularly low-income housing tax credits, impact new construction
- HPD has achieved record numbers in financing housing for shelter-exiting households, supportive housing, and ELI units in new construction
Kim Darga
0:58:30
So the overall pipeline has remained pretty steady because we get new projects all the time.
0:58:38
I just want to clarify a little bit.
0:58:41
So every new construction projects we finance has units for extremely low income households, every single one of them.
0:58:50
And that is the same in preservation as well.
0:58:54
It is very rare to see a project in preservation that doesn't have ELI units.
0:59:00
Our assistance really helps the buildings that are more deeply affordable in order to remain viable, healthy buildings longer term.
0:59:09
So the overall timeline really depends more on other factors.
0:59:16
As I was saying, we had a backlog in preservation for a long time.
0:59:20
We've been working through.
0:59:22
We were really trying to prioritize projects with the most urgent needs, which tend to also be buildings where there's deeper affordability.
0:59:30
In new construction, we are trying to advance the pipeline as quickly as we can, as the acting commissioner said.
0:59:41
We are limited on the federal resource front, which really impacts new construction because we're highly dependent on availability of low income housing tax credits in particular, where we haven't seen growth of that resource in a very, very, very long time.
0:59:57
So I just want to reiterate, every project that we have an ability to make a discretionary decision about, we are targeting affordability for extremely low income and very low income households.
1:00:09
And you can see that I think in the records that we have I know this sounds like just numbers, but it's not.
1:00:16
Over the last couple years, we have financed the most housing for households exiting shelter.
1:00:23
We have financed the most supportive housing.
1:00:26
In new construction, we've had some of the highest production for extremely low income households ever.
1:00:32
So it really is deliberate decision making on our end to make sure that where we have a choice, we are investing those resources to provide households that are the most vulnerable to the forces within the market housing choice.