Addressing our Community’s Affordable Housing NeedsTogether

What is a Local Housing Trust?

• A Local Housing Trust acts as an intermediary to fund and provide technical assistance to meet community-centered housing needs that are not fully met by others.
• Operating in one of California’s most expensive real estate markets, there is tremendous unmet need for housing that is affordable to the workforce, seniors, and others with special needs.

A Housing Trust contributes to opportunities for generations of families and the workforce to live and work in the community by:

• Working closely with community partners to ensure there are housing opportunities for everyone, with a focus on rental and ownership housing for low income and missing middle households;
• Providing nimble, low-cost pre-construction financing for developments that offer rental and ownership housing that’s affordable to the local workforce; preserving and extending the life of existing housing through low-cost loans; as well as education and technical assistance; and
• Working in partnership with other housing providers, financial institutions, corporations, philanthropists, foundations, and governmental entities to carry out our purposes, including through receipt of revenue from dedicated funding sources such as endowments and public funding.

A locally-based housing trust is a valuable tool to create incentives for the kinds of housing projects that would meet our community’s needs. Housing trusts are able to secure funding from sources that are not always available to government or private developers and can nimbly leverage and deploy those funds to create housing opportunities.

Newport Beach has an obligation to provide its fair share of regional housing needs.  By doing so in a manner tailored to the community’s needs, Newport benefits.  For example, housing opportunities are fundamental to attracting and retaining workers for critical jobs such as teaching, healthcare and emergency services.  Housing options can also mean the difference for adult children and fixed income seniors to stay in Newport.  A local housing trust will help to make the difference in advancing the types of projects that Newport Beach needs.