Point Reyes Light - September 26, 2002

Pt. Reyes affordable homes lose funding

By Dave Mitchell

The affordable-housing project planned in Point Reyes Station this week received a financial blow that will delay the start of construction, which had been scheduled later this year.

On Monday, EAH, the nonprofit developer planning to building a 36-unit affordable-housing complex downtown, learned that half the funding for the project has fallen through.

One half of the financing for the project was expected to come from the county Housing Trust Fund, $1.66 million that would be matched with $1.66 million from Marin Community Foundation. In addition county government had planned to waive fees for the project and pass along federal funds it allocates – together an additional contribution of $640,000.

But the other half of the financing was expected to be federal money administered by the California Tax Allocation Committee, and on Monday the committee told EAH that at least for now it will not give the project the $3.33 million EAH had asked for.

EAH project manager Lamar Turner on Wednesday told The Light that his nonprofit must now meet with county and foundation officials to decide what to do next.

The Point Reyes Station project, which was competing for funds with similar projects statewide, missed the funding cut by only one point out of a possible 158. Using state criteria, the EAH project scored 154 points while projects with 155 points and above got money.

Lamar Turner, manager of the EAH project, said Marin County wealth had nothing to do with the Point Reyes Station project losing out. For the project to have scored enough points to survive, it would have had to include single-room units, housing geared to people with disabilities, or use of a site designated as a "revitalization area."

Moreover, "the rules change every year," Turner said, "and that’s a problem." However, future changes may allow the EAH project to qualify for funding when the California Tax Allocation Committee makes its next distributions in March. However, Turner wasn’t sure supporters want to wait six months to find out.

If the state committee had given EAH federal tax credits, which are disbursed among all the states, EAH would have sold "low-income tax credits" to corporations, which could, in turn, use them to shelter income for 10 years and to claim depreciation on the project’s rental units; the corporations would retain part ownership in those units.

This week’s rejection by the state committee "is not a small issue" for the Point Reyes Station project, noted Turner. However, he stressed, the setback will not keep affordable housing from being built in town. "There’s no way we’re going to let this [19-acre] piece of land go," Turner said. "It’s going to have some affordable housing somehow."

As approved by the county, the project would include 27 affordable rental units, seven affordable cottages that would be sold, and a market-rate lot for sale on which a house and second unit could be built.

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