April 8, 1999 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Developing Affordable Housing: A Practical Guide for Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition
By Bennett L. Hecht
Intended for non-profit organizations that work in housing development, this book explains how to raise capital, develop properties, and insure that tax and financial issues are handled properly.
Mr. Hecht is vice-president for program services at the Enterprise Foundation, an organization in Columbia, Md., that focuses on housing and community development. He asserts that the government’s commitment to providing low-cost rental and homeownership opportunities has decreased in this decade, and that non-profit organizations must fill the void.
“Even in communities where affordable housing is being developed, more work, especially for special-needs populations (for example, disabled, homeless, and AIDS), is needed and more non-profit organizations need to be doing it,” he writes.
The reason most have not, he says, is because most groups don’t know where to look for funds.
Mr. Hecht begins by outlining ways to determine if creating low-cost housing is within an organization’s financial means. He follows with sections that cover procuring funds for the project (through loans, grants, or equity funds); contracting for, purchasing, and rehabilitating an existing property; and maintaining and managing the property once it is acquired.
He explains such options as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and offers case studies of non-profit groups that successfully provide safe and affordable housing, such as Tenderloin Family Housing, in San Francisco.
New to this second edition are chapters on obtaining funds from public-housing agencies, such as funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program, and collaborating with other non-profit groups or with businesses.
Appendixes detail sources from which funds and tax credits are available.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, One Wiley Drive, Somerset, N.J. 08875; (800) 225-5945; fax (908) 302-2300 or (800) 597-3299; World-Wide Web http://www.wiley.com; 690 pages; $95; I.S.B.N. 0-471-29844-1.
