Affordable Housing Developers Survey

Summary of Responses 16 Developers Responded 5 for-profit 11 non-profit

Housing Type and Income Levels Served What is your Target Income/Audience? 12.5% 25% 12.5% 12.5% 12.5% 25% Housing Type and Income Levels Served

Barriers to Bringing Affordable Units Online Top Barriers in last 5 Years Finding affordable land to develop -- 75% Gap financing -- 63% SHPO -- 44% Clear Title/ NIMBYism / Zoning / Access to pre-development financing -- 38% Environmental Review Process / Staff Capacity -- 31% HDLC Review Process -- 25% Challenges with zoning (density and height bonuses) -- 13% Exclusion of community land trusts from subsidy opportunities -- 6%

“We must also ensure land availability from NORA, our main source, as once the LLT lots are gone, we will be unable to continue building single family homes affordably. This must be conveyed to agencies, such as HANO, who at one point wanted to sell us the land at appraised value--this simply could not work.” “Like many affordable housing developers and CDCs in New Orleans we are now exploring other types of community development projects in case we are no longer able to continue to build.” Trends and Challenges “Unfortunately construction cost issues are hard to overcome. We are more heavily researching prefab construction than ever and are adjusting material selections in some cases.” “The cost of construction continues to increase, and with our specific energy efficiency requirements, the costs are even higher. This makes the availability of gap financing extremely important, because without it, we could not exist.” “The City needs to create a predictable process for accessing incentives. It is currently paralyzing the construction of non-LIHTC affordable units as the delays caused from navigating the application processes for PILOTS, RTAs, CDBG and other funds, density bonuses, and parking waivers quite literally kill deals. It is far simpler to pursue "market rate" as of right deals - even though as a development community we recognize that "market-rate" rents are actually unaffordable and unlikely to successfully rent.”

Our respondents have 1,095 affordable units in their development pipeline with 996 still in pre-development.

Land Acquisition Our developers rely on City partnerships to develop affordable units 80% of respondents have developed land granted to them by NORA, HANO or the City 100% of nonprofit developers source property through these entities All nonprofit developers who are able to profit from sale of their single family homes have recieved land or grants from the City Respondents shared that greater coordination amongst developer partners and increased clarity and guidelines on programs would increase their capacity to bring affordable units online

Financing A majority of respondents said financing has presented significant barriers to progress in the last 5 year. 87% of respondents report construction costs are a significant challenge Half of respondents report a lack of buyer and renter subsidy impacted their ability to do high quality development * ** *** * Cash flow from rentals ** Other tax programs (HDLC, RTA, etc.) *** HUD- Insured Debt and some conventional loans