Developers of affordable housing now have an incentive from the City and Borough of Juneau — cash from a fund designed to acquire, rehabilitate, preserve or create affordable homes.
The Borough and the Juneau Economic Development Council Thursday announced the release of the Juneau Affordable Housing Fund (JAHF) preliminary application for funding.
The City Assembly passed an ordinance last July that created the $400,000 fund, which is the JAHF is the first of its kind in the state of Alaska.
It was designed “to address the shortage of affordable housing in Juneau by providing low and zero-interest loans to non-profit organizations, public housing authorities, and profit-motivated entities that can provide housing for households at 120 percent Area Median Income (1 person, $67,650) and below,” according to a press release.
It will be managed by the Assembly-appointed Affordable Housing Commission and the city affordable housing coordinator at the Juneau Economic Development Council.
Each year the Commission will set priorities for the use of JAHF funds.
JAHF round one priorities include:
• Use of capital to develop housing units; one-bedroom rental units for low-income residents (50 percent AMI and below); and long-term affordability (50+ years).
• To ensure sustainability of the JAHF, 65 percent of JAHF funds will be available for round one ($260,000). The majority of awards will be low-interest loans. Five percent of funds will be available for zero-interest loans.
An informational meeting will be held April 21 at noon at the Juneau Economic Development Council.
The deadline for questions is May 5. Preliminary applications will be accepted until May 31 at 4:30 p.m.
For an application and more information, please contact Affordable Housing Coordinator Scott Ciambor at JEDC. 523-2338, or by email at sciambor@jedc.org. More information on the JAHF program is available at http://jedc.org/housing-fund.shtml.
Comments (6)
Add commentI am not saying this is a bad
I am not saying this is a bad idea but I think it tells a lot about a town when all you have is apartments and condos. Every where you look in Juneau there is multi familiy dwellings being built and in the end they are anything but cheap. The city is making a deal with the wrong people. Juneau is like a big low rent district where they charge high rent. It must totally suck to buy a nice house and then have a developer put a 8 plex right next door, talk about there goes the neighborhood.
So, $400.000.00, that should take care of rent for 250 families for 1 month or 1000 for a week. Then what??? What about the other 1000's of people???
Isn't this just like giving money or a huge tax break to the BIG OIL companies and HOPING they will pass the savings on to us???
NO WAY THEY WILL
It's the same logic and it is not going to happen.
This is just another giveaway
This is just another giveaway to the likes of madsen and bicknell who will take the money and sell "Affordable" $300K homes
I live across the street....
From a low-income, assistence type housing unit. Police or EMS are there at least once a week. They are not kept up.
I think affordable housing is ok, but I think that it doesn't do the recipients any good if there are not rules for conduct and household upkeep, and requirements for education (classes of some sort) in things you need to know to keep a good home - cleanliness, budgeting, understanding mortgages, etc.
No one wants to live next door to a pig stye the police are always being called to.
It may be that some folks simply did not have the upbringing to recognize how you should keep up your home, and what it means to be a good neighbor.
I think, if you just 'give' cheap housing to people, you don't elevate the chances that they will change their lives, or that their children will live better lives, and not need subsidized housing. But if you do a little "parenting" at the same time - - it might be a short-term need, as opposed to a generational one.
I feel the same way about welfare or unemployment - if you are going to collect, you should also have to attend some type of training designed to help you avoid having to rely on these aids in the future. If you give a man a fish.......
no giveaways.
How about incentives for builders to build? Supply to equal demand will bring down or stabilize prices. When people "buy" something they tend to keep it up. Building rows of cheap, poorly constructed apartments with assisted rents is not the answer. Plus, you'll need a small army of babysitters to keep the place together.
Renting > Buying
There's already too much emphasis on buying vs. renting. It's hard to come up with a good argument for buying a home vs. renting, other than fulfilling the American Dream™. And really, if everyone owned their own home... There wouldn't be enough resources for all of us. High density housing is extremely efficient, not just in allowing many people to inhabit a relatively small amount of land, but also in encouraging necessary facilities (supermarkets, barber shops, banks, etc.) to build within walking distance of those areas, so you save on road construction, fuel, and labor. Not that I think Mendenhall Towers is an exceptional example of how this should be done.
Low income housing is great, but the problem is that those people are low-income to begin with. I think a state-run housing complex, with certain requirements like swimmergirl suggested, would be a great solution.