Middle Income Housing Authority (MIHA)

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Colorado Senator Jeff Bridges’ advanced legislation to created the Middle Income Housing Authority (MIHA), an innovative tool to drive the development of affordable housing for middle-income folks. Colorado faces an acute shortage of “missing middle” housing, housing that is many working families, such as nurses, teachers, and firefighters. The program provides market-based incentives to leverage private capital and minimizes government investments. 

By treating middle-income housing like the infrastructure investment it is, MIHA represents a significant shift in addressing affordable housing by using a market-oriented approach driven by public-private partnerships. By leveraging tax-free municipal bonds and social impact investors, MIHA reduces reliance on government financing and creates a sustainable and scalable model that reinvests all profits into additional affordable housing. 

MIHA aims to increase the supply of rental housing. While developers may get a higher return by building market-rate housing, they pay significant taxes on those returns. By allowing access to the same kinds of tax-free bonds used to finance other infrastructure investments, developers using tax-free bonds for MIHA projects will see roughly equal returns. This drives investment in middle-income housing without competing for government dollars that should go toward low-income housing subsidies.

Impact:

Success will be measured by the number of affordable housing units built for middle-income earners, especially in our mountain resort communities and in gentrifying neighborhoods where long-established communities are being pushed out by increased housing costs. While currently focused on rental housing, the success of this unique financial model should allow for the construction of for-sale MIHA housing as well. Over the next two years the initial six projects representing several hundred new housing units will demonstrate what works best, where it works, and why it works. The long term goal is to show a measurable decrease in the number of middle-income individuals and families across Colorado who are cost burdened, alongside a measurable increase in the supply of housing units that are affordable for those families.

Community Safety Housing Subsidy

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi championed the Community Safety Housing Subsidy program to address the rising cost of living in Atlanta and the challenge of attracting and retaining police and fire first responders. He hopes to combat these obstacles by setting aside $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to offset the cost of first-responder personnel living within the city limits. Moreover, the program seeks to facilitate neighborly and voluntary interactions between first responders and those they protect for the purpose of reducing crime, building trust, and increasing public safety.

Funds are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are intended for monthly rent assistance. Recipients are required to be on active duty and complete 1 hour of unpaid community service per month. The amount of rental assistance will be on a sliding scale from $250 to $850 based on yearly income.

Impact:

The program started accepting applications in 2023 and will measure its impact on several metrics including:

 1) More first responders choosing to live in the City

 2) Reduced attrition among first responders who are in year 1-10 of their service

 3) An increase in applications to public safety positions

 4) Increased trust in public safety officials and departments

 5) Reduction in crime.

Inequity Analysis of City of Las Vegas Fines & Fees

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Las Vegas City Councilmember Brian Knudsen is leading the assessment and update of code enforcement fines and fees related to equitability based on location and population. Knudsen aims to address the negative impacts of fines and fees on residents, particularly in neighborhoods with high code violations. The proposed study focuses on homeowners who violate property codes and aims to understand the root causes of high violation areas and the inequities associated with fines and fees. The city plans to analyze data before, during, and after the implementation of the SHIFT Program (Safe Home Improvements Funding and Training program), which provides funds and resources to assist eligible households in bringing their homes into compliance with municipal codes. The city has identified neighborhoods with high code violations and inequities, such as high numbers of a particular ethnicity, elderly homeowners, and disabled homeowners. The study aims to achieve a reduction in code violation debt, increased participation in the SHIFT program, and culturally competent financial education for communities in need, thus lowering the average overall debt in underserved areas of the city.  

 

Impact:

The study was selected for being funded through the National League of Cities via their CAFFE (Cities Addressing Fines and Fees Equitably) grant. The study is currently underway looking into how the SHIFT program will be used, and will aid in counting overall citation amounts in identified areas of high code violations. Coupling this with policy changes to eliminate double permit fees for those not in code compliance will ultimately lead to consumer savings in underserved areas.

From Parking Lot to Housing

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Faced with a shortage of affordable housing and an ambitious goal to develop 10,000 new affordable units by 2030, Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw has worked aggressively to convert vacant and underutilized county-owned land to affordable housing. Working in partnership with the county’s housing authority, non-profit affordable housing developers, and the private sector, the transfer of county-owned land can make possible projects that would otherwise be too expensive due to the significant cost of land acquisition in Northern Virginia. The county has also utilized federal COVID funds on several recent projects.

The conversion of surface parking to housing, community space, and child care will have economic, social, and environmental benefits.

Impact:

Success will be measured by progress toward the goal of creating 10,000 new affordable units in Fairfax County by 2030. Recently, the Board of Supervisors approved Residences at Government Center II, which when complete will deliver 279 units of housing affordable to families earning 30% to 70% of the area median income, and more than 100 child-care slots for low and moderate-income families on what is now an underutilized parking lot in front of the county’s main government center building.

Renters’ Right to Counsel Program

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

The City of St. Louis is grappling with a housing affordability crisis, where nearly 60% of renter households pay an average monthly rent of $951. Although there was a slight dip in eviction during the pandemic, eviction filings have increased year over year and are more than twice as common in majority-black census tracts compared to majority-white ones.

As part of her broad initiative to provide families with a safe and stable roof over their heads, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones launched the Right to Counsel program (RTC) to provide access to legal services for tenants facing eviction proceedings. She utilized $685,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to establish the program, ensuring St. Louis renters have access to legal services for tenants facing eviction and the ability to access the Missouri court system, regardless of income level. This bill demonstrates Jones’ commitment to strengthening tenant protections and reducing housing instability in the communities. 

 

Impact:

Mayor Jones signed the new ordinance into law in July 2023, and the city is currently distributing funds to several legal aid service providers across the city to serve ZIP codes with the highest rates of eviction. Additionally, the city is working to hire a program coordinator housed within the St. Louis Department of Human Services that will oversee the program’s implementation. Board Bill 59 also requires landlords to provide tenants with information regarding the availability of the program.

 

Affordable Housing Incentives

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

At the beginning of 2023, Las Vegas City Councilmember Brian Knudsen and the Las Vegas City Council adopted an ordinance formalizing incentives for affordable housing. This created a process by which incentives can be offered to all developers during the application process. Incentives help to offset rising costs, stretch funding received for affordable housing from the state and federal government, and take risks associated with uncertainty away from developers and developments. Incentives include: expedited plan reviews, density bonuses, height bonuses, and permit fee reductions, which are all tied to a percentage of units being set aside as affordable.

Impact:

The city expects to see similar results to these incentives seven in peer cities (Austin, Denver, Virginia Beach, Nashville, Sacramento, Seattle, and Orlando), which resulted in 5% affordable housing units to total units built.

 

Ohio Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady Approved Major Funding for Utility and Rental Assistance

Ohio: Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady led the effort to approve $32 million for utility and rental assistance. The funds will be distributed to local nonprofits and the Department of Job and Family Services. Efforts they support will include eviction prevention and a Resiliency Bridge Pilot Program to help residents move into higher-paying careers. O’Grady said the county’s goal is to make a generational impact with these investments and empower struggling families.

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Ohio City Council President Shannon Hardin Allocated $2 Million to Help College Students Secure Housing

Columbus, Ohio City Council President Shannon Hardin and fellow city councilmembers allocated $2 million to extend the Success Bridge Housing Stabilization program, which coordinates with community partners to help college students secure housing. The program started as a pilot in 2020 and provided emergency financial assistance and longer-term housing solutions to nearly 100 students. Success Bridge closed earlier this year, but Hardin worked to authorize $1.6 million from the city to pair with $400,000 from the city’s federal Emergency Rental Assistance programs. “Students more often fall behind on rent rather than tuition,” Hardin said. “This is a proven way to keep people in school.”

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Rhode Island Brett Smiley Directs $3 Million Grant for Building Resilience in Non-Profits Serving Underserved Providence Communities Program

Providence: Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley announced $3 million in grants for the Building Resilience in Non-Profits Serving Underserved Providence Communities program. This grant will help the grantees improve and expand their impact, including key social and behavioral services, employment opportunities, and more. “These grants are a long-term investment that will help prepare our community organizations become more resilient in future disasters and ensure residents can still have access to quality services,” Smiley said.

American Rescue Plan: Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft Received Funding for First Wave of Support for Housing Projects

Nevada: Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft worked with the Board of Commissioners to approve new funding to get 3,000 affordable housing units up and running, adding to a multi-million dollar plan that includes federal HOME-ARP funding. The first round of new funding will support housing projects already in the pipeline while the second is expected to spur construction of new long-term rental housing. This will offer lower-income residents relief from housing costs.

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