From California to Ohio, LISC Boosts Housing Developer Capacity

11.05.2020 - LISC Stories

Beginning early this year, with critical support from U.S. Bank Foundation, LISC launched the Ohio Housing Development Training Institute (HDTI), an affordable housing developer boot camp modeled on the highly successful California HDTI that we have offered since 1998. More than 400 people from 100 community development organizations have graduated from the California program and have gone on to create nearly 30,000 homes for people living on low incomes. The Ohio HDTI, originally intended as an in-person training but now being delivered online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has 20 participants representing rural and urban communities across the state. They will graduate from the program this month. 

Just as with the California model, the Ohio HDTI program aims to boost the capacity of affordable housing developers by providing practical and comprehensive skills training. It also intends to increase the supply of affordable housing in Ohio, and to nurture a network of project management professionals—with an emphasis on including practitioners of color and those rooted in historically under-invested communities—so that they can serve as a resource to each other and share peer support throughout their careers. 

The Ohio HDTI program is made possible by a $100,000 grant from U.S. Bank Foundation, a long-time LISC partner in Ohio and across the country. U.S. Bank Foundation recognizes that the skills required to develop affordable housing are complex and multifaceted, which is why they supported the launch of Ohio HDTI. This is among the many efforts U.S. Bank Foundation supports to connect individuals and families to sustainable housing opportunities. 

To learn more about the experience of participants and how the program is helping shape their work, LISC caught up with an Ohio HDTI attendee, Maria Collins, Director of Real Estate and Community Development at Cincinnati’s Avondale Development Corp (ADC), which serves the Avondale neighborhood. Avondale is one of 52 neighborhoods located in Cincinnati’s metropolitan area, and the largest African American community in the city. Maria’s work involves creating affordable rental housing and homeownership options for the community (including ensuring the real estate development complements other aspects of ADC’s strategies and the Avondale Quality of Life Plan) and building the strategic alliances that make this work possible. 

LISC: You’re a seasoned community developer. What motivated you to enroll in HDTI? 

Maria Collins: The timing of when HDTI came to Ohio aligned perfectly with the Avondale housing development projects I am working on. I am in the process of constructing new workforce and affordable single-family housing in the community. This will be the first major housing development project ADC has undertaken since its inception. The single-family housing is targeted to families who are within 80 to 115 percent of the area median income. As I worked through the predevelopment phase, I found myself on a learning curve. My hope for the training was to gain the additional skills and knowledge I needed to successfully manage the development process. 

What are the most valuable things you’ve gotten out of the training, and how have you been able to integrate that learning into your work? 

I would say the most valuable aspect of the training for me was gaining a better understanding of project planning and management, financing decisions to property valuation, property management and real estate asset management. Gaining a better understanding of these areas was key for me. This training showed me that I was taking the right steps in my development projects.  

My organization is also co-developer in a low-income rental multifamily housing project in the community, which was recently awarded Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Through HDTI, I gained a better understanding of how tax credits work in affordable multi-family housing projects. Because of what I have learned, I was able to do a more comprehensive review of the project’s financial documents. I was very excited to have received this knowledge when I did and to apply it immediately upon learning it. 

Has HDTI changed how you approach your housing development work? 

Yes, it has changed my approach as to when to start the planning process, and which elements of the process to attack first. I will also approach community factors differently, such as community safety issues in and around the area where I am planning housing development projects. For example, my initial reaction to a site located in an area identified as a hotspot was "Oh my God, this is going to kill my project." I learned from this training that instead of taking a negative stance, I should approach from a position of “how can I address the issues to make the project work.”  

In the training, we did a session on best practices and creative ways to address issues of safety in the community.  Participants were split up into groups, where we talked about the different ideas and initiatives that have been implemented in our communities to address crime and safety. It was a very helpful exercise. 

In Avondale, we are fortunate to be able to collaborate with our district police through an initiative called PIVOT (Place-Based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories), which is made up of police officers and community partners, to help identify and disrupt crime hotspots within the community.  

That’s great. Since you started HDTI, the program has moved to an online format because of the need for social distancing during COVID. In a virtual environment, how were you able to build a rapport with your instructors and other participants? 

The classes were held twice a week.  One day was for lecture and one day was for exercises. The lecture format was used to cover the training material for the week. There was also dialogue and sharing of information by participants about projects and programs, plus the opportunity for Q&A. The exercises were done in breakout groups, where participants worked in teams on the exercises and built rapport with each other.  

The instructors were great and very knowledgeable. They followed up with the participants outside of training, through phone calls or emails, to find out how each us were feeling about the training and if we needed any additional assistance. 

Were there aspects of the training that you liked best? 

My favorite aspect of the training was having the opportunity to meet and build relationships with peers in my industry, who were from different cities, communities and agencies across Ohio. It was great to learn from their experiences relating to housing, financing and policy-making.  

Another favorite part for me were the workshops that provided very valuable information on everything from available federal and state resources for affordable housing, business district development to community benefit agreements and the importance of those tools in negotiating with developers and the community. We also discussed land trusts and how they help to create affordable housing. 

And finally, I really appreciated the emphasis on conducting both financial feasibility and overall feasibility analysis for affordable housing projects. 

One of the goals of HDTI is to help participants develop a new peer network. Do you feel you came away with a network that you can rely on and bounce ideas off of? 

Oh, most definitely. I really liked that the participants were from varying backgrounds, with different areas of expertise. We had participants who are very skilled on the finance side. There were some who have a lot experience with low-income multi-family housing development, and others with experience working with tax credits. It has definitely helped knowing there are people I can go to if I have questions about my projects, both now and in the future. That's priceless.