Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

Listen to this Areaprobe podcast which details financing affordable housing using grant funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank.

You can also listen to it in segments here:

• Providing Housing for Homeless Households
• Federal Home Loan Bank Scoring Criteria 

About the Speaker
Megan Krider started working at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh in 2013 in the Community Investment Department and now serves as Manager, Affordable Housing and Community Development. In this position, Megan has the responsibility of managing the Affordable Housing Program which has supplied more than $263 million in efforts to support affordable housing development. Additionally, by managing the Bank’s Blueprint Communities® initiative, Megan has been able to support community development and the capacity building for communities. Megan received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from John Carroll University as well as a Master of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

The DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) is currently signing up qualified District residents (those who meet the income qualifications listed below) for its Solar For All program. It aims to sign up around 2,000 District residents in the next few months. Qualified residents that sign-up receive credits on their Pepco bill of around $500 per year, which is about 50% of the average Pepco bill for District residents, allowing them to share in the benefits of clean solar power. For more information, please contact DOEE at solarforall@dc.gov or (202) 299-5271.

Washington DC residents can participate in Solar for All single family solar or community solar options if the household income is below 80% of the area median income (AMI) threshold.

^{Household income amounts listed in the eligibility table are effective as of 06/28/19, but may change.}

Walter Webdale and three fellow leaders were inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame at last week’s AHF Live in Chicago. For the past 20 years, Walter has served as the President and CEO of AHC, a nonprofit that provides affordable housing throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, and longtime HAND member. He has helped to grow the organization’s affordable multifamily portfolio from 1,600 units to 8,000 at nearly 60 properties today. Prior to AHC, he served as the first director of the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development in Virginia.

Walter D. Webdale, AHC Inc. President and CEO, celebrated his induction into the Affordable Housing Finance Hall of Fame with current and “alumni” AHC multifamily development team members during AHF Live in Chicago. From left to right: Kevin White, Steve Smith, Joe Weatherly, Walter D. Webdale, Judy Webdale, and Nick Bracco.

Other trailblazers honored at the conference include:

• Jane Graf (President and CEO, Mercy Housing)
• Mayor Ed Lee (San Francisco)
• Denise Muha (Executive Director, National Leased Housing Association)

Congratulations to Walter and all of the honorees! You can read more details from AHF’s story here.

Photo Credit: Dan Reed

An Enterprise press release issued last week announced a $5 million, three-year commitment to help expand access to economic opportunity for local residents and small business owners along the 16-mile Purple Line light rail corridor in the Greater Washington region. It reads:

The Purple Line project in Maryland’s Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties will provide more efficient transit and spark redevelopment around its 21 stations. As part of the JPMorgan Chase’s $25 million, five-year commitment to the Greater Washington region, from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, this new investment will create and preserve affordable housing and support small businesses along the transportation corridor.

Specifically, it will allow community organizations Enterprise Community Partners, the National Housing Trust and Latino Economic Development Center, with support provided by Enterprise Community Loan Fund, to provide targeted loan capital and resources for projects related to high-quality affordable housing and small business expansion. With this investment, the collaborative, called Purple Line Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, seeks to: 

• Create a framework to preserve/create 1,000 affordable homes and help attract new investments;
• Support more than 200 small businesses with small business loans totaling $900,000 and customized bilingual technical assistance, resulting in 300 jobs preserved/created;
• Pursue the goals of the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC), a group of public-private-community leaders – led by the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG) with community organizations, state and local governments, nonprofits, philanthropies and businesses such as Kaiser Permanente – with a collective vision and action strategy for vibrant economic and community development along the corridor.

HAND congratulates all of our members and partners involved! Read the full press release here.