icon Blueprint for May

Where the money is

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3 min read

In an anecdote that has become urban folklore, the famous Roaring 20s pilferer Willie Sutton was asked, “Why do you rob banks?” And he responded, “It’s where the money is.”

Please don’t be alarmed. I am not about to advocate robbing banks as a means of funding affordable housing. (Although it may be the only way to get stored cash out of some contemporary institutions.) But the intent if this issue is to make you familiar (or more familiar) with other (and legal) sources of funding for development and restoration.

In a previous career, I was largely responsible for raising millions of dollars for new projects. No matter how encouraging a start I may have gotten off to, it always seemed that near the end I had always had to turn to every available funding source and tactic. Raising funding is never a walk in the park. In fact, it is always a swim in a rough sea.

And yet,Tim Leonhard, our regular Debt Corner columnist, tells us in this month’s lead story, A Grand Time for Funding (p. 15), that a large menu of debt products combined with low interest rates makes this a opportune time to be in building industry. Douglas Koch explains a relatively new source of funding that seems to be emerging and provides details on some of the players in the Social Impact Financing space. (p. 24) And A.J. Johnson takes you inside the Virginia Housing Development Agency to find answers to the most frequently asked questions about LIHTC inspections. (p. 19) And then there’s our guru, David A. Smith, who has some of his own ideas about debt financing, as he has about everything. (The guru is out, p.9)

Of course, no matter how much financing you can attract, you cannot build without land. We had noticed a lot of activity in the faith-based affordable housing space and sent our staff writer Joel Swerdlow out to survey it. He came back with the interesting observation that religious institutions generally own land (and frequently more land than they need) in urban neighborhoods in which land can be scarce. (Faith Based Development, p. 29.)

Also, in this issue, Joel, along with Bendix Anderson, each provide case studies of really fun restoration projects that are cornerstones of reviving downtown neighborhoods—Pizitz Department Store in Birmingham (p. 35) and the Salvation Army 2010 Apartments in Midtown St. Louis (p.32).

We hope this issue inspires some new ideas for funding your projects. And if not, you can probably still find a copy of Willie Sutton’s autobiography on Amazon. The title? Where the Money is, of course.
Marty Bell, Editor