To assist initiatives to preserve and rehabilitate Woodbridge Village Apartments, The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) has sanctioned funds of $7 million. Woodbridge Village Apartments is a 50-unit housing complex for senior citizens located at St. Helena. This is CalHFA’s first step towards the restoration and preservation of affordable housing for California senior citizens.
Established in 1975, CalHFA was an initiative to help Californians reside in affordable homes. The multifamily division of CalHFA invested over $2 billion for the building and preservation of about 36,000 reasonably-priced rental housing units. This project provided assistance to nearly 85,000 Californians from the low and very low income groups.
The Woodbridge Village has a special place in the history of CalHFA. It is the first development constructed with financing from the CalHFA permanent financing on its creation in 1975. This project was built with a loan of $1.2 million, which was completed in 31 January 1978. Woodbridge Village’s financing for this year will be the first commitment under the Portfolio Preservation Loan Program of CalHFA. The Portfolio Preservation Loan Program will be employed in conjunction with the New Issue Bond Program under CalHFA’s umbrella. This program allows for rehabilitation, acquisition, and floating of permanent loans for multifamily housing that are existing CalHFA-financed projects which promote affordable housing as well as strive to preserve and extend the affordability.
The Portfolio Preservation Program also supports cleaner environment initiatives and has made it mandatory that all developments carry out a Green Physical Needs Assessment for their environment. Energy Star appliances, photovoltaic panels, complete window replacements and air conditioners are some cost effective, environmentally friendly measures of the rehabilitation at Woodbridge Village. These developments are expected to save 35% of the total energy usage.
Source: http://www.calhfa.ca.gov