At Enterprise, we know that decent, affordable housing can be the springboard that enables families to escape poverty and helps communities grow and prosper. For 25 years, Enterprise has been a leading provider of capital and expertise for affordable housing and community development.
Enterprise’s Denver office has served Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region since 1993. This report highlights some of our recent work. We invite you to partner with us in 2008 as we strive to make affordable housing happen in our community.
Much of our work in Denver over the past year has centered on promoting thoughtful planning for the transit-oriented development (TOD) that will take shape as FasTracks is built out. At the same time, we continue to advocate for policies that will facilitate the creation of affordable housing throughout metro Denver.
In 2006, Enterprise commissioned the Center for Transit-Oriented Development to analyze the opportunities and limitations for inclusive development around transit-oriented development (TOD) sites. The resulting report, Making the Case for Mixed-Income TOD, illustrates the barriers to creating mixed-income developments at TOD sites and offers strategies for overcoming them.
Enterprise has used the report as the basis for briefings with elected officials and community leaders throughout the metro area. It also served as the catalyst for Creating Sustainable Communities forum described below. Read the report.
In 2007, Enterprise joined forces with the Urban Land Institute to further our common goal of promoting the development of housing affordable to the metro Denver workforce. The ULI-Enterprise Workforce Housing Initiative builds on Enterprise’s affordable housing experience and ULI’s long-standing expertise in real estate development. The Initiative grew out of our understanding that much of the area’s new development is priced out of reach of low- and moderate-income workers, or is located in areas far away from employment centers.
The Workforce Housing Initiative brings together volunteers from the public and private sectors to develop strategies to increase workforce housing production in target areas, including transit corridors. The Initiative’s staff and volunteers are engaged in a two-pronged effort. First, they will model potential mixed-income development at specific sites under current conditions, and assess the impact of regulatory and policy changes that support workforce housing development. The Initiative will then share this information with elected officials and other stakeholders, with the goal of reshaping metro-wide policies to include the housing needs of low and moderate-income workers.
Enterprise’s support for the Workforce Housing Initiative is made possible through a generous contribution from long-time Enterprise supporter Jerrold Glick, principal of Columbia Group LLC.
In 2006, Enterprise hatched the idea of highlighting the need for affordable housing in metro Denver by creating a critical mass of housing-focused events over the course of one week. The result was Affordable Housing Week. The event invites advocates, developers, Realtors, government entities and others to explore challenges and celebrate successes.
Participation in the 2007 Affordable Housing Week increased markedly over the first year. The range of activities demonstrates the event’s breadth of support from area organizations:
- Habitat for Humanity Build Day
- Denver Board of Realtors fair housing training
- Enterprise’s Creating Sustainable Communities forum
- Aurora Housing Corporation open house at new affordable housing development
- Growing Home grand-opening celebration of Westchester Apartments, an affordable and transformational housing development
- HUD seminar on financing multifamily housing, training sessions on single-family homeownership and a walking tour of HUD-financed properties in downtown Denver
- City of Denver’s annual Housing Fair for first-time homebuyers
- Colorado Division of Housing training session for local officials on conducting housing-needs assessments
- Mercy Housing ribbon-cutting for a new mixed-income housing development in a popular inner-city neighborhood
- Housing Colorado! reception for the movers and shapers of Colorado’s housing advocacy community
- Housing Stars awards breakfast
Enterprise congratulates the individuals honored as Housing Stars at our second annual Housing Stars Awards breakfast:
- Leader of the Year: Bill Lunsford, Lakewood Housing Authority
- Volunteer of the Year: Randy McCall, Key Bank
- Funder of the Year: Thrivent Financial
- Resident of the Year: Ginger Wiggins, Warren Village Resident
Enterprise convened visionary experts from around the country in June 2007 for a comprehensive discussion on integrating affordability, green building and transit-oriented development in metro Denver. “Creating Sustainable Communities: Combining Mixed-Income, Green and Transit-Oriented Approaches,” part of Affordable Housing Week 2007, featured lively, insightful dialogue.
In his opening remarks, Enterprise Chairman Bart Harvey noted that FasTracks offers Denver the potential to be a national leader in sustainable green development. Keynote speaker and visionary New York developer Jonathan F. P. Rose, an Enterprise trustee, offered examples of how green mixed-income developments can enrich communities on multiple levels. A panel discussion with Rose, Ferd Belz of Cherokee Denver, Bert Gregory of Mithun Architecture, Chuck Perry of Perry-Rose and Shelley Poticha of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development explored opportunities and challenges for sustainable affordable developments around FasTracks transit stops.
One overarching theme emerged from the day: Region-wide planning and intergovernmental cooperation are essential to achieving sustainable development in metro Denver, especially around transit stops. The forum’s 100-plus attendees – representing metro-area developers, funders and elected officials – demonstrated the willingness of key players to engage in just that kind of collaborative leadership.
As co-chair of the City of Denver’s Housing Plan Task Force, Enterprise spearheads efforts to identify and fill gaps in Denver’s housing supply to ensure a thriving community for the future.
In 2006, Enterprise and the City of Denver funded a comprehensive study of Denver’s housing market to kick off the work of the city’s Housing Plan Task Force. The analysis showed a housing stock that is out of balance with the city’s needs. For example:
- 42 percent of Denver households are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing.
- 41 percent of Denver renters earn less than $20,000 annually and only 14 percent of rental units are affordable to them.
- Only 10 percent of renters – who make up a big part of future buyers – cannot afford the median-priced single family home in Denver, and only 18 percent can afford the median-priced attached home.
- Denver’s job growth is projected to come primarily from relatively low/moderate-wage service sector jobs, creating the potential for an influx of workers who cannot afford to live in the city.
Using these findings, the Task Force is creating a new housing plan for Denver – the first since 1999. Enterprise is committed to ensuring that this plan facilitates the creation of the very affordable rental and affordable for-sale homes that Denver needs to meet the needs of its growing workforce.
Enterprise marked a milestone in 2007 by concluding the work of the Housing Development Project (HDP). Since 1993, HDP – a funding collaborative between Enterprise, the City of Denver, Mile High United Way and area banks and corporations – supported the development, rehabilitation and preservation of more than 5,000 affordable housing units and helped more than 1,400 families achieve homeownership through counseling, financial education and down payment assistance. Together, HDP funders have provided more than $8 million in operating support and technical assistance to nonprofit developers in metro Denver.
After 15 years, Enterprise and its HDP partners recognized that the funding environment had changed, and that HDP was no longer the best tool for the times. Accordingly, the decision was made to bring HDP to a close by the end of 2007. All grantees received additional 2007 funds to help them make the transition to new funding sources.
Enterprise gratefully acknowledges the participation of these long-time partners in the HDP collaborative:
- The City and County of Denver
- Mile High United Way
- Wells Fargo
- U.S. Bank
- Bank One of Colorado
- Washington Mutual
- Bank of the West
- KeyBank
- FirstBank of Denver
- Vectra Bank Colorado
- TCF National Bank
- Mountain States Bank
- Shaw Construction Company
Green Communities is Enterprise’s five-year, $555 million nationwide initiative to build more than 8,500 healthy, efficient homes for low-income people and to make environmentally sustainable development the mainstream in the affordable housing industry.
Green Communities promotes the use of energy efficient technologies, healthy building materials and environment-conscious site planning practices without compromising affordability. And this ground-breaking national framework is coming to Colorado.
To date, Enterprise’s Denver office has awarded eight Green Communities grants in Colorado and provided two no-interest loans to green projects in metro Denver. Additionally, Enterprise worked with the City and County of Denver to develop a sustainability standard for city-subsidized affordable housing. The new standard was announced in early 2008 and Enterprise will begin offering trainings and technical assistance in 2008 to help affordable housing developers in metro Denver “go green.”
Enterprise helped to create the Low-Income Housing Tax-Credit program, and is one of the nation’s leading syndicators of these equity investments, pooling resources for maximum impact.
Enterprise’s Denver office provides syndication services in six western states: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. In 2006-07, we provided more than $105 million in equity financing to 17 affordable housing developments in these states, enabling the production of 975 housing units.
Through our Special Delegated Fannie Mae Lender program, Enterprise provides mortgage financing for affordable housing development and rehabilitation. In addition to long-standing products such as private activity bonds and 501(c)3 bonds, our specialized portfolio includes a 30-year “unfunded forward” loan for developers needing a permanent loan to support short-term loans for new construction or acquisition. This product provides a 24- to 36-month commitment and interest rate lock on the permanent loan during the construction period. We also provide permanent loans to projects on an “immediate” funding timeframe, such as refinances.
In 2007, Enterprise introduced its new 40-year amortization mortgage. This unique lending program allows developers to leverage more loan proceeds or increase cash flow by using a longer amortization period. The 40-year program is structured as a conventional taxable permanent loan, which is suited for 9 percent tax-credit projects, and is financed through an institutional investor.
Enterprise’s Denver office provided nearly $8 million in long-term financing in 2006-07 for the production of 271 affordable housing units in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico and Washington. We also participated in an additional $7 million in deals elsewhere in the country, facilitating the production of 326 housing units in Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and North Dakota.
In 2008, Enterprise will broaden its offerings as an FHA Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Lender. This program offers more flexibility in loan structure and terms, and includes both construction and permanent loan components. In addition, we will continue to participate in bond-financed deals.
Enterprise is comprised of Enterprise Community Partners (formerly The Enterprise Foundation) and a for-profit subsidiary, Enterprise Community Investment, that together provide financing and technical support for affordable housing and community development.
This unique combination enables Enterprise to understand and address the entire spectrum of issues related to affordable housing and community development. Our nonprofit and for-profit entities work collaboratively to shape policy and financing solutions that transform lives. As part of the national Enterprise family, the Denver office can make national financial, technical and policy resources available throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
In 2008, Enterprise will continue to partner with the development, financing and policy sectors to realize our shared vision of vibrant and sustainable mixed-income communities. |
