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Enterprise
Redevelopment of St. Martin Manor.
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Enterprise Community Partners arrived in the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes of 2005 prepared to provide disaster relief to dislocated families and technical assistance to local leaders.
Enterprise has committed to working with local partners to invest $200 million in the Gulf Coast to build 10,000 affordable homes. To date, Enterprise's efforts have led to $63 million invested through low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity and more than $14.5 million in loans and grants. These investments include nine developments for families and seniors in Louisiana and Alabama that will provide homes for nearly 750 households.
One of Enterprise's major commitments in New Orleans is to the Lafitte public housing redevelopment in the historic Tremé neighborhood. With local partner Providence Community Housing, Enterprise has promised one-to-one replacement of all affordable units lost to storm damage.
The project is expecting to require $100 million in LIHTC equity and is designed to ensure that the homes will be affordable, safe, and environmentally and economically sustainable. The mixed-income development will include market-rate and subsidized rental housing and for-sale units.
Banks and other investors can enhance this and similar efforts by investing in tax credits and construction lending, supporting homeowner assistance programs and financial training, and providing single-family mortgages suitable for residents' incomes.
Enterprise created the Louisiana Loan Fund in conjunction with Louisiana and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), drawing from Enterprise's experiences in managing similar funds in other states. The $47 million fund offers predevelopment and acquisition financing to developers that are rebuilding affordable homes destroyed by the hurricanes.
The fund recently approved its first acquisition loan for $3 million to the Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation to acquire property for a new mixed-income, high-rise development on the banks of the Mississippi River. Banks and other investors can increase the fund's impact by providing take-out financing for projects using the fund. This will help recycle fund resources so more developers can participate.
Mississippi recently awarded Enterprise $20 million to purchase and rehabilitate 300 bank-owned properties to sell to people with low to moderate incomes. This is a part of Mississippi's Long Term Workforce Housing program, which is one component of the state's recovery program funded with a special allocation of federal community development block grant funds.
Banks with single-family foreclosure properties in the Gulf Coast can work with such nonprofits as Enterprise to return those homes to productive use by participating in bulk-rate purchasing agreements for the foreclosed homes.
For more information, visit our Web site.
To contact Enterprise's office in the Gulf Coast, call Michelle Whetten, Local Office Director, Enterprise Community Partners, at (504) 821-7242. For further information on how banks can contribute to Enterprise's investment funds on a regional or national scale, contact Doug Able, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets for Enterprise Community Investment, Enterprise Community Partners, at (410) 772-6005.
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