The Kansas City region is facing a severe affordable housing shortage, with home values rising nearly twice as fast as household incomes since 2010. To address this issue, a new $100 million fund is being developed to provide low-cost, flexible financing to developers of affordable housing projects.

The Kansas City Regional Housing Fund

The fund, which is being assembled by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and the Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), aims to create or preserve 3,500 to 5,000 units of affordable housing across the nine-county, two-state area. The fund will provide construction loans, preferred equity, and forward purchase agreements to developers, with the goal of making affordable housing projects financially viable.

The fund is designed to be flexible and will consider a range of projects, including single-family homes, multifamily developments, and rehabilitation of existing properties. The fund’s organizers expect it to launch later this year and will continue to raise funds even after its initial launch.

Addressing the Affordable Housing Shortage

The affordable housing shortage in Kansas City is a complex issue, with many factors contributing to the problem. The region has built housing at roughly half the pace it did before the Great Recession, and the number of owner-occupied homes worth less than $150,000 has been cut in half over the past five years. At the same time, the number of rentals under $1,000 a month has also dropped by half.

The fund’s organizers believe that the key to addressing the affordable housing shortage is to provide developers with access to low-cost capital. By doing so, they hope to encourage the development of more affordable housing projects and help to address the shortage of affordable housing in the region.

Original reporting: The Beacon (Kansas City) — read the source article.