Heritage Housing Partners
CaliforniaLike most of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, the residents of South Pasadena, California are coping with steep housing costs. To help counteract the resulting displacement of low income residents in the city`s historic neighborhoods, Heritage Housing Partners (HHP) introduced a unique residential rehabilitation/re-sale program to protect the affordability and the special historic character of South Pasadena.
Central to HHP`s mission is to acquire abandoned, foreclosed and dilapidated properties that contribute to neighborhood instability and to orchestrate a high quality rehabilitation that conforms to the Secretary of Interior`s Standards for Rehabilitation. In this way, HHP`s rehabilitation and re-sale activity creates "new" homeownership opportunities for income-qualifying buyers without displacing tenants or compromising historic housing stock.
HHP’s financing consists of a $350,000 line of credit from the National Trust’s Inner-City Ventures Fund and support from Washington Mutual (WaMu) and the City of South Pasadena. Generous terms from the City have been particularly helpful in keeping the cost of the homeownership reasonable for its longterm residents while National Trust and WaMu dollars have been applied to acquisition and rehabilitation costs. This funding enables HHP to acquire, rehabilitate and re-sell historic homes, or to create compatible infill homes where appropriate.
Heritage Housing Partners` successful model has resulted in the completion of eight homeownership projects. These efforts have made a tremendous impact on the community and the individuals touched by their work. A couple that had resided in their home for forty years are now proud homeowners; a low-income senior citizen may now raise her teenage grandson in a house she owns, and a former crack house revealed to be a creation by storied architects Greene & Greene is now a beautifully restored and affordable first home. HHP has another homeownership project under way, in addition to a 44-unit project.
For more information contact:
National Trust Loan Funds
202-588-6360
http://www.nationaltrust.org/loan_funds/loan_case_studies.html
NationalTrust_LoanFunds@www.preservationnation.org
