Housing Fund snags federal cash

Treasury money to bulk up loan pool, fund training program

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

The Nashville Housing Fund has received $1.1 million from the federal government for the nonprofit’s affordable loan pool and to train affordable housing developers.

The money came from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which handed out a total of $54.2 million to 89 organizations that serve distressed communities across the country.

The Nashville Housing Fund works on neighborhood revitalization in Middle Tennessee as well as Allen, Edmonson and Warren counties in Kentucky. Organizations must compete for the CDFI funds. This isn’t the first time the Housing Fund has received money.

“This makes actually about $6 million we’ve gotten,” said Loretta Owens, the Housing Funds executive director who is just back from a year-long sabbatical in Paris.

Owens said the organization last received CDFI funds several years ago.

Of the total, $1 million will provide money for development loans, build up the loan-loss reserve and provide pre-development money for developers who go through an affordable housing development academy that is being created.

The balance of the funds will be used to create the academy.

“This is the time when housing assistance is needed but becomes more difficult to do,” Owens said.

The newly acquired dollars must be matched over the next three years. Owens said her group will do that through grants.

Among other projects, the Housing Fund developed The Laurel House in The Gulch to provide low-income housing in the redevelopment area and help revive the area.