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Discussion on Affordable Housing Development Projects, Approval of City Financial Assistance, <br />and Approval of Appropriation Adjustment <br />June 20, 2017 <br />Page 4 <br />Financial gap analysis reports on Aqua Housing and Tiny Tim Plaza affordable housing <br />development projects seeking City financial assistance. <br />On May 17, 2017, the Ad Hoc Committee met and recommended staff bring the four projects to <br />City Council for discussion and seek direction based on the results of the financial gap analysis. <br />In addition, the Ad Hoc Committee requested that staff provide the currently available affordable <br />housing development funds (Exhibit 1), estimate of potential future funding, restrictions and uses <br />of those funds (Exhibit 2), and development schedule for each project (Exhibit 3). <br />Following is the description, history and status of each of the four projects seeking City financial <br />assistance: <br />Santa Ana Arts Collective, Meta Housing Corporation: 1666 North Main Street <br />The Santa Ana Arts Collective is an artist focused affordable housing development project that <br />consists of a 57 -unit adaptive reuse project to convert an existing five -story office building to <br />residential units and ground -floor commercial and community space. The unit mix consists of 26 <br />one bedroom units, 14 two bedroom units and 17 three bedroom units for 30%, 50% and 60% of <br />the Area Median Income (AM]). <br />This project applied to the City for financial assistance through a competitive Request for <br />Proposals (RFP) process on August 21, 2015. On November 3, 2015, the City Council awarded <br />$4,635,000 in funding for the project from Its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG <br />$500,000), Inclusionary Housing Funds ($1.875 million), and a pre -commitment of HOME <br />Investment Partnerships Program funds ($2.26 million), As conditioned in the City's approval, the <br />developer Meta Housing Corporation (Meta Housing) then gathered the balance of awards <br />projected to fully finance the project. In October 2015, the project was awarded Affordable <br />Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) funds by the California Department of Housing <br />and Community Development (CA HOD). In November 2016, Meta Housing was competitively <br />awarded 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Under normal circumstances a LIHTC <br />allocation is the final piece of financing needed for a project to move forward. However, since the <br />November 2016 presidential elections, anticipated federal tax reform has upended LIHTC equity <br />markets and resulted in a financial gap that, absent additional funds, renders the project <br />infeasible. On December 14, 2016, Meta Housing submitted a request for an additional $3.1 in <br />City funds due to the financial gap created by lower tax credit equity pricing and rising interest <br />rates. The request was submitted to KMA for review. <br />In December of 2016, City staff informed Meta Housing of other alternatives such as a hybrid 9 <br />percent14 percent tax credit structure proposed by the Californla Tax Credit Allocation Committee. <br />Meta Housing applied and was unsuccessful in securing the hybrid tax credits. On March 1, 2017, <br />KMA completed a financial gap analysis and determined $2,900,000 as the financial gap for the <br />project If the City required the Developer to defer or forgo $600,000 of the developer fee included <br />In the Project's budget (Exhibit 4). Later as requested by the Ad Hoc Committee, CSG Advisors <br />completed a second opinion financial gap analysis on May 9 and determined $1,481,215 as the <br />financial gap for the project If the City required Meta Housing to contribute a portion of its <br />80A-12 <br />