Targeted Affordable Housing: Making Our Mark

In a year where volume was down a dramatic 46% in the overall multifamily market, our Targeted Affordable Housing (TAH) team had its second biggest year on record — a remarkable achievement in 2023. And despite the challenges, with your partnership we exceeded our most ambitious affordable housing goals ever.

Our impact on housing — and in the lives of renters and their families — was felt far and wide, where it’s needed most. In Staten Island, New York, that meant financing housing with critical supportive services for those who were homeless. In California, our first Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity investment in a ‘Colonia’ community is helping build homes for farmworkers. Coast to coast, and in so many places in between … from rural communities to large cities: We helped make home possible for our nation’s renters.

Through our TAH debt products, as well as our Facility and Structured products, we financed more than 600 loans totaling close to $11 billion — supporting over 90,000 units. We financed deals in 40 states along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

A Record in Forward Conversions

We helped create and preserve affordable rental housing by funding a record $2.6 billion in forward conversions, which supported more than 21,000 newly constructed or rehabilitated affordable units. We also issued new commitments to fund $2.3 billion in future years, supporting over 22,000 units that will be built or rehabilitated. The forward program boosts the supply of new and rehabilitated affordable housing by providing certainty of permanent financing, even in volatile markets.

LIHTC Equity Investments

With more than $883 million in LIHTC equity investments last year, we achieved or exceeded all LIHTC equity Duty to Serve targets, aligning with the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision to increase the LIHTC equity cap for 2024 to $1 billion. We made 50 investments in 2023 — with a number of them aimed at helping rural communities, farmworkers, tribal nations, veterans and those who are homeless.

Since 2018, Freddie Mac Multifamily has committed over $4 billion in LIHTC equity through 240 investments, helping to create or preserve nearly 30,000 units of affordable housing.
 

I’d like to recognize our TAH Production and Underwriting leads and their teams:

Production — Curtis Melvin for TAH retail and Facility Products; Chris Weber for LIHTC equity; and Cindy Schwartz for Structured Products.

Underwriting, headed by Catherine Evans, vice president of Underwriting & Credit — with Elizabeth Lawson and Michael Roberts for TAH retail; Nikki Harvey for LIHTC equity; and for Structured Products and Facility Products, Caitlin Myhre, vice president of Underwriting & Credit, with Lawrence Washington.

And of course, we’re grateful for our partnership with all our Optigo® lenders and LIHTC equity syndicators.    

Thank you for your extraordinary efforts in 2023 to help us fulfill our affordable housing mission. We look forward to all we can achieve together in 2024!