The Asociación de Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) has broken ground on the 8th & Berks Senior Housing Living, called Camino de Oro, or Golden Path. Regional Housing Legal Services represented APM in the multiyear process leading up to this day, with Director of Economic Development Laura Schwartz and staff attorneys Justin Hollinger and Joseph Jampel providing legal counsel to APM. Elon Development Corporation, based in Fort Washington, is APM’s co-developer on this project.
Nilda Ruiz, the President and Chief Executive Officer of APM, as well as a long-time member of RHLS’s Board of Directors, was pleased to work with RHLS again. “We are so grateful for almost 30 years of working together with RHLS and the stellar counsel they provide on LIHTC. Their passion for supporting affordable housing shows through once again in Camino de Oro. Mil gracias.”
It has been a project a long time coming, APM was unable to secure funding the first time that they applied to the competitive housing funding programs. Due to the pandemic, APM also faced a daunting rise in construction costs. In response to these challenges, APM was the first organization in Philadelphia to secure federal funding through the PA Housing Finance Agency’s (PHFA) construction cost relief program to cover the gaps in funding. This program provides money to ensure the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit construction projects are not further delayed due to rapidly rising construction costs and other unforeseen cost increases.
The new forty-four-unit apartment building is APM’s 11th LIHTC development and will include a community room, café, as well as a fitness room that will be open to the surrounding community. APM will be the property manager and oversee supportive services for the residents, who will include persons with disabilities as well as seniors. The majority of the apartments will be affordable to seniors at 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). It will bring 44 one- and two-bedroom affordable senior apartments to a neighborhood that is seeing a steep increase in the number of market-rate rental and condo units
In order to maintain this affordability, APM used several funding strategies. Financing came from an equity investment from the National Equity Fund, a construction loan from TD Bank, N.A. and a 42-year loan for $2.8 million from the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, and a sponsor loan from APM. They were also able to secure permanent funding from the City and reinvested a part of their developer fee to structure a rent subsidy reserve in addition to PHFA’s reserve. A rental subsidy reserve exists to subsidize rents for units set aside as accessible housing to persons with disabilities or for units that will be marketed to and affordable to tenants whose incomes are at or below 20% and/or 30% of the AMI. The building is scheduled to be completed in November of 2022.
Photo credit: Justin Hollinger; architect rendering courtesy of APM.