About the Author
Chad Swiatecki is a 20-year journalist who relocated to Austin from his home state of Michigan in 2008. He most enjoys covering the intersection of arts, business and local/state politics. He has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Daily News, Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman and many other regional and national outlets.
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More on affordable housing
Monday, January 28, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Earlier this month, we checked in on the progress of Affordable Central Texas and the Austin Housing Conservancy, which have partnered in an effort to buy apartment complexes and preserve their rents at middle-class income levels in order to safeguard workforce housing. That story described how the groups planned to purchase four complexes in 2019, bringing the total to seven since the effort began. This past week the CEO of ACT told the Austin Business Journal that the investment fund has raised nearly $10 million total, with a goal of raising another $30 million by the end of this year. On its own that level of capital wouldn’t be enough to follow through with the groups’ purchase ambitions, which is why deals like the $50 million Fannie Mae loan secured with Bellwether Enterprise Capital was needed for the housing fund to move ahead with the purchase of two of the three complexes it bought in 2018. The Conservancy hopes to get a total of $500 million to complete purchase of 10,000 apartment units preserved at workforce rates in the next 10 years.
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