WHEDA wins a $5,470,000 Capital Magnet Fund award

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund has awarded the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) a Capital Magnet Fund grant of $5,470,000.  A total of $91.47 million in grants were awarded to 32 organizations selected from 125 applicants that requested more than $609 million. 

According to the CDFI Fund the awards will finance the development of affordable housing and other community service facilities in low-income neighborhoods in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

“We’re delighted to win this significant award and I congratulate the WHEDA team that put together a strong application to secure the critical funding,” said WHEDA Executive Director Wyman Winston. “The award could leverage an estimated $50 million of affordable housing investment. We look forward to using the award for meaningful projects that might include down payment assistance, support for a new affordable condo product, or gap lending for affordable housing deals.”

WHEDA won the second largest award in the country and was the only winner in Wisconsin.

The CDFI Fund has announced that awardees plan to develop 17,000 affordable housing units comprised of more than 15,000 rental units and nearly 2,000 homeownership units. Combined, 93%, of all housing units will be developed for low-income households earning 80% or less of the area median income (AMI).

“The impact of this program will be tremendous,” said CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan. “The program requires recipients to leverage $10 of housing and economic development investments for every $1 of federal funds meaning the awards will support over $900 million of investment in low-income communities.”

“Affordable housing remains out of reach for far too many Americans," said Antonio Weiss, Counselor to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew. “This funding will enable organizations across the country‎ to expand access to affordable housing and help meet the critical needs of thousands of families.”

The Capital Magnet Fund helps low-income families and economically distressed communities by attracting investment for affordable housing and related economic development. The Capital Magnet Fund provides competitively awarded grants to CDFIs and qualified non-profit housing organizations to develop, rehabilitate, preserve, and purchase affordable housing for Low-, Very Low-, and Extremely Low-Income families. Capital Magnet Fund awards can be used to finance affordable housing activities as well as related economic development and community service facilities such as day care centers, workforce development centers and health care clinics.

Funding for the Capital Magnet Fund comes from the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

WHEDA is an independent state authority that works with lenders to provide low-cost financing for housing and small business development in Wisconsin.  For more information on WHEDA programs, visit www.wheda.com or call 1-800-334-6873.