Our Commitment to Workforce Housing
The need for affordable rental housing is greater than ever.
As the nation’s leading multifamily funder, we finance apartment buildings so more families are able to find quality rental housing they can afford. Our commitment to workforce housing helps provide homes that are affordable to families making lower incomes. In fact, of the 10 million rental units we’ve funded to date, over 90% are affordable to renters with low to moderate incomes.
What is workforce housing?
Fundamentally, it’s housing affordable to the ‘missing middle’ – those making modest incomes in markets across the country.
For our loan offerings, we use a guideline of 80% or less of area median income in most markets, with some variation in cost-burdened markets.
Who lives in workforce housing?
In many ways, residents of workforce housing are the backbone of every community. They are teachers, police officers, firefighters, health care professionals, and service industry professionals such as cooks, retail employees or custodians. They are aspiring home buyers or they’re renters who, as the missing middle, often don’t qualify for subsidized housing.
Workforce Rent Affordability Guidelines for Optigo® Loans
Rent is affordable to households with an income up to and including:
- 80% of the area median income (AMI) in standard markets
- 100% AMI in cost-burdened markets
- 120% AMI in very cost-burdened markets
- 150% AMI in extremely cost-burdened markets
Click here for a list of these markets.
What are the characteristics of workforce housing properties?
These properties tend to be older with fewer amenities, but also include newer properties purpose-built as affordable to households with moderate incomes.
A variety of our Conventional, Small Balance Loan (SBL) and Targeted Affordable Housing (TAH) offerings play a critical role in supporting workforce housing, improving lives and strengthening communities.
