By
Nancy Carpenter
Jan Miller spends a lot of time thinking about affordable housing.
By day, he heads member Wainwright Bank & Trust Company in
Boston, one of the largest financers of affordable-housing development
in and around the city. And this year marks his third on the board
of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (the Bank),
where he serves as vice chair of its Housing and Community Development
Committee. The committee studies demographic trends and needs of
New Englanders who cannot afford to live in market-rate housing
and recommends projects it considers worthy of funding through
the Bank’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP).
The AHP began life in 1989, as the banking industry struggled with
the ongoing fallout from the savings and loan scandal and the government
sought ways to recoup some of the billions it had spent to keep the
country’s banking system afloat. Among them was the creation
of an AHP, in which each Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) would provide
grants and low-cost loans to developers of affordable housing in
their districts. The program would be funded by a percentage of the
individual FHLBank’s yearly profits.
Much has changed in the 15 years that have since passed: Steadily
rising home prices, a shrinking supply of open land, a population
that is expanding and aging at a rapid pace. And the list goes on.
Noticeably unchanged, however, is the need for affordable housing.
New England consistently ranks high on the cost-of-living scale,
while Boston has become one of the country’s
most expensive places to live. And this distinction isn’t likely
to change any time soon, says Mr. Miller.
Both in his work at Wainwright and on the board of the Bank, requests
for financing help of any kind continue to pour in from developers
and agencies trying to meet an ever-increasing demand for affordable
housing in their communities.
Compounding the uncertainty of today’s volatile market are
recent cutbacks in state and federal funding for low-cost housing.
“So many factors drive the demand [for affordable housing], making it
that much harder to put together a [financing] deal,” Mr. Miller says.
Even so, Wainwright Bank continues to be a powerful advocate for affordable
housing in the Boston area.
Wainwright is a frequent, and often successful, sponsor of applicants
for AHP funding. The most recent awards round included three proposals
submitted by Wainwright on behalf of developer-clients. Soon to get
underway will be Cheriton Heights in West Roxbury, another project
for which the member helped win AHP financing. Of the 90 new apartments
in this senior development, 80 will be rented to low- and very low-income
residents and 10 will be rented at prevailing market rates.
Including a few market-rate units is an increasingly popular way
for developers to get an affordable-housing project off the ground
and come through with enough profit to call the endeavor a success,
Mr. Miller says.
While he doesn’t hold much hope of housing costs taking a sudden
plunge, the present waning of home sales in the region could nudge
prices in that direction.
“For so long, housing prices have outpaced income growth. But a cooling
market could give folks a chance to catch up,” he says.
The cost of housing may be linked to economic cycles, but the need
for affordable living is constant. As the AHP heads into its sixteenth
year and beyond, it is bound to face some formidable challenges,
says Mr. Miller.
As a member, he has been impressed with the way the Bank has embraced
its mission in affordable housing. He points to improvements in the
application process and a willingness to tweak the program to make
it more equitable as a couple of ways that Boston has differentiated
itself from the 11 other AHPs.
“That says much about the program. And it says just as much about the
people involved,” he says. T
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