Rio Vista Apartments
Affordable Housing Spotlight: Rio Vista Apartments, Los Angeles
Photo by Abode Communities
By Joe Basquin, Contributing Editor Broadband Communities
Securing financing for affordable housing communities has become more competitive and challenging in recent years. “There are always more people asking for money than there is money available,” says Brian Horton, Director of Consulting of Fresno, Calif.-based Innovative IT, the technology infrastructure consulting [arm of TekTegrity, Inc.] that specializes in designing high-speed networks for affordable housing developments. Horton often works with developers competing for federal low-income housing tax credits, which can be sold to banks and other corporations to secure funding. “As a developer, you need to enhance your score any way you can.”
One sure-fire way for a developer to accomplish that is to provide free high speed Internet to lower-income residents and help bridge the digital divide. That’s exactly what Los Angeles–based Abode Communities decided to do to secure tax credits for the $27 million Rio Vista Apartments, a joint-use development that combines affordable housing and an early education center on Los Angeles Unified School District surplus land.
