An Oasis of Affordability: Nonprofit Greens and Preserves Older Property in Washington Suburb

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For years, affordable housing has been at a premium in the City of Fairfax, Va., a high-cost bedroom community of Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia has long seen numerous affordable apartments converted to market-rate apartments or condominiums.

So when officials of the Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC) launched an 18-month effort to renovate the nonprofit’s existing 54-unit HUD-subsidized apartment complex in the city with the latest green features, using low-income housing tax credits, they had no doubts about finding new tenants to make their continued investment a success once the work was finished.

According to CPDC President and CEO Michael Pitchford, the renovation required leaving an entire stairwell of apartments vacant so that current tenants in the other units could be rotated in and out while their apartments were being updated with new kitchens, bathrooms, and other high-efficiency features.
CPDC’s efforts paid off. The new West Wood Oaks Apartments (formerly Suburbia Fairfax) was fully leased by the time of its grand opening in August 2012. The two low-rise brick and wood frame buildings comprising the development, originally constructed in the 1970s, provide the only dedicated affordable housing in the City of Fairfax.

In addition to a brand new community clubhouse for residents, the renovation and green makeover included replacing inefficient old insulation and installing new Energy Star lighting and appliances, solar panels to assist the new hot water heaters, low-flow toilets, and new high-efficiency HVAC systems with a 15-SEER rating.

The upgraded development meets the Enterprise Green Communities and EarthCraft Virginia standards for green buildings.

Challenge to Recapitalization

Officials at CPDC, which acquired the property in the 1990s under the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act (LIHPRHA), knew a while back that the development needed to be upgraded and recapitalized.

Its 1970s construction, which included materials designed before the first real energy crunch and gas crisis, had poor insulation, Pitchford said. “The units were functional, but dated,” he noted.

Pitchford described the property as “long in the tooth” and in need of recapitalization to maintain its affordability for the next decade and beyond.
But there was a significant hurdle to a recapitalization. Because the development was a LIHPHRA preservation project, there were long-term use restrictions limiting the amount of distributions to CPDC from surplus cash flow. “We had to figure out how to work through the LIHPHRA regulations and get a tax credit deal done to recapitalize it,” Pitchford said.

The LIHPHRA program rules require some units to have deeper affordability than does the LIHTC program, while dramatically restricting the amount of surplus cash flow that owners can tap.

Dealing with the LIHPHRA program’s restrictions was a major concern for CPDC, which needed to obtain a larger share of surplus cash flow distributions and refinance the property.

“A lot of time and financial engineering was spent working with HUD’s Richmond office,” says Pitchford, “getting to the point where they said, ‘All right, you can have a distribution to service a seller surplus cash note. You can use more cash flow. We’ll let you amend the LIHPHRA rules to allow you to do the tax credit deal and move forward.’”

“That was a big deal.”

CPDC proceeded to structure a new acquisition/ rehab transaction to make the recapitalization possible.

Funding Sources

The nearly $9.8 million transaction was funded by low-income housing tax credit equity, a first mortgage, a surplus cash note, replacement reserves, residual receipts, and a deferred developer fee. The Virginia Housing Development Authority allocated the 9% housing tax credits. Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. syndicated the tax credits and Enterprise Community Partners provided a permanent loan. Virginia Community Capital made the construction loan.

At the project’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in late September, Fairfax Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne said West Wood Oaks benefits the city by providing affordable housing for local residents. “This residential community has been a great asset to the City of Fairfax,” he said, “helping to ensure that people who work in the area can afford to live here.”

One study found that a household in the City of Fairfax needs to earn $60,240 to be able to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment.

City officials were grateful to CPDC for keeping the property affordable in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. Entry-level teachers, firefighters, retail workers, and many others have difficulty finding affordable housing in Northern Virginia.

Affordable Rents

West Wood Oaks Apartments offers plenty of affordability for renters, with monthly rents for the 10 one-bedroom apartments and 44 two-bedroom units ranging from $889 to $1,287.

Thirty-nine units are reserved for tenants earning 50% or less of the area median income (AMI) – $53,650 for a four-person family. Another three units are reserved for households making 51% to 80% of AMI and another 12 units for tenants making 81% to 95% of AMI. Ten units qualify for project-based Section 8 rental assistance and six apartments meet universal design standards to accommodate residents with disabilities.

Pitchford said CPDC, based in Washington, D.C. and now 23 years old, is going through the first round of recapitalizations on its affordable housing properties. West Wood Oaks is not going to need a comprehensive rehab for another 20 years,” he says. “Use restrictions run for its useful life.”