A private New York real estate investment trust that invests exclusively in affordable housing announced on Tuesday that it is putting $20 million into California low-income housing, including issuing a mortgage for a Van Nuys senior housing complex.
The Community Development Trust, in partnership with TIAA-CREF, the New York national retirement and financial services provider, is putting $5.7 million into the Andalucia Senior Apartments. The long-term loan carries a fixed rate that allows rent to remain affordable at the project for the long term.
The 94-unit apartment building at 15305 Lanark St. is designated for residents 62 and over and was built in 2009. The building’s amenities include a computer room, library, fitness center and outdoor living area. CDT’s mortgage agreement requires Andalucia’s units to be reserved for residents who make no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income.
The deal is part of a portfolio transaction with the California Community Reinvestment Corp., a statewide lender and long-time partner of the Community Development Trust. It covers a total of eight mortgages on low-income properties throughout California, including the Van Nuys complex; The Hobart, a 49-unit building in Koreatown; and Carondolet Court, a 33-unit building in the Westlake District of Los Angeles.
The Andalucia Senior Apartments is owned by Meta Housing Corp. of West Los Angeles, which developed the project at a cost of roughly $20 million in 2008.
Meta Housing also has developed two senior projects in the San Fernando Valley: the Burbank Senior Artists Colony in 2005 and the NoHo Senior Artists Colony in 2012. And it recently broke ground on the $30 million Glendale Arts Colony in partnership with the YMCA of Glendale. That project will provide 70 units of affordable housing to struggling artists, actors and musicians.
Several recent studies have shown that the L.A. housing market is the nation’s least affordable, with the nation’s highest rental rates and biggest gap between rising rates and falling wages. New York University’s Furman Center released a study this month that found both L.A.’s rental population and rents grew 11 percent between 2006 and 2013, while wages fell 4 percent.
Vacancy rates across Los Angeles are low, with the vast majority of new housing proposed or under construction in the Valley in the luxury apartment category.
