“Affordable housing is at a critical juncture. The need is greater than ever, while public funding is being cut,” said NAHT President and CEO Jim Bowman “Working together, NAHT and SAHF can increase the impact of limited public and private resources and create new strategies for producing and preserving affordable housing.”
SAHF President Bill Kelly added,”This alliance will enable SAHF to be in constant touch with the market through NAHT, assuring that our policy agenda is practice-driven and practiceenhancing. Our window on the policy world, in turn, will empower NAHT to build on its reputation as a product innovator for the affordable housing sector.”
Headquartered in Columbus, NAHT is a not-for-profit, financial intermediary and advisory firm focused on the financing of affordable rental housing developed or preserved by high capacity non-profit developers. SAHF, based in Washington, is a 501(c)(3) network of 11 top nonprofit developers dedicated to practice-based policy solutions and innovative products to overcome the barriers to the development of affordable housing.
As of May 1, SAHF became the sole member of NAHT, replacing the five current non-profit members, which are also members of SAHF. This alliance provides NAHT a platform for growth in its syndication business as SAHF members expect to provide NAHT the opportunity to syndicate a portion of their tax credit equity transactions.
The alliance will strengthen SAHF financially. The additional financial capacity will enable SAHF to advance its work in the affordable housing policy and product innovation areas, benefiting the overall affordable housing field and low-income residents.
The SAHF member organizations expect the alliance to increase their impact. “The affiliation of SAHF and NAHT will give us access to syndication staff that deeply understand our needs and with whom we can partner to develop new financial products when we need them,” said Amy Anthony, President of Preservation of Affordable Housing. “It will also give us a stronger practice base for promoting new approaches in affordable housing, which will benefit the industry as a whole and better serve the marketplace.”