Vancouver Housing Authority, 500 Omaha Way, Vancouver, WA 98661, US

Community Housing Fund's MissionCommunity Housing Fund serves as a catalyst to secure new sources of capital to leverage community financing of construction and rehabilitation of housing affordable to working families, people with unmet needs and those living on limite d and fixed incomes in Washington County.Increasing housing choices for those with low incomes by offering loans, grants technical assistance to nonprofit community development corporation partners to finance pre-developmentPutting a face on the affordable housing issue by hosting community workshops and sharing the stories of those who need housng.Conducting a broad-based fund raising campaign across the public private sectors to identify secure equity and debt investments to capitalize the Fund and build a community asset for Washington CountyHistory of the Community Housing FundIn 2002, more than 3, 000 residents of Washington County took part in issues' teams that focused on the basic needs of the Washington County. The teams included education, health care, mental health, the environment and housing. Each issue had a facilitated group which met six months and crafted a set of implementation steps to improve the ability of the county and its community partners to respond to the identified needs.The housing issue team determined that the single most important tool to increase affordable housing production was the creation of new financial resources Specifically, nonprofit developers of affordable housing cited the need the early pre-development money to pay for the early costs of renovation or construction. These include such necessary tasks as soil analysis, architectural drawings, permit fees, land surveying and other tasks which must be completed before the developers may seek funding from sources such as government and banks. We also provide flexible funding to fill gaps in existing projectsIn response to this need for early funding, the Community Housing Fund was founded in 2003 as a 503 ( c ) corporation. The Fund's mission is to become a long-term asset Washington County. The Fund increases the number of affordable housing units available to low-income residents of the county by providing early pre-development money to nonprofit developers who are renovating or building affordable housing communitiesOver $1 million has been raised since the Fund's inception. Since the Fund's first grant in 2004, both grants and loans have helped six nonprofit groups create or rehabilitate over 400 units of housing. These grants and loans have leveraged, on average, seven to eight times investments made by the Fund.Fund is grateful to its Board of Directors, volunteers who oversee the operations of Fund and provide strategic direction The staff of two is committed to the mission of Fund and pursues working relationships with all sectors of community to secure new sources of loan capital and promote innovative housing models and tools with local policymakers.Our funding partners have joined with us in our mission to raise awareness of affordable housing needs and to make significant investments in solutions to these community needs.the Community Housing FundContact the staff of the Community Housing Fund: info@thecommunityhousingfund.org