Development Finance

Praxis Consulting Group has extensive experience in securing financing for affordable housing development projects. It is skilled in identifying the equity and debt sources that are most appropriate for a given project, and in structuring multi-tiered financing combining private, federal, state, and local resources.

The housing finance programs used by Praxis include:

• Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program--Praxis staff have participated in the financing of a number of projects that have used the low income housing tax credit program, including supportive housing and elderly assisted living. We have worked with dozens of different equity sources and are familiar with tax structuring as well as market pricing.
   
• Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits—Praxis staff have structured the financing on projects eligible for the rehabilitation credit for certified historic structures. We are familiar with the design standards as well as the technical issues involved in combining the Historic Tax Credit with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
   
• State Housing Finance Agencies—Projects managed by Praxis staff have used financing from a variety of state housing finance agencies, including the Nevada Housing Division, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, and the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency. We have utilized both taxable financing and private activity tax-exempt 142(d) bonds.
   
• HUD HOME, state Housing Trust Fund, and HUD Community Development Block Grant funds Praxis projects have used these funds, which have been accessed at a variety of administrative levels, including state, city, and local consortiums. We are familiar with the regulations governing the use of these funds as well as with the techniques for combining these funds with conventional first mortgage debt in a limited partnership or limited liability company ownership structure.
   
• Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program--Praxis has been successful in securing grants under the AHP Program for many affordable housing projects.
   
• HUD HOPE VI and Public Housing Mixed Finance—Staff of Praxis Consulting Group have extensive experience with HOPE VI and public housing mixed-finance development, as enumerated in 24 CFR 941, Subpart F. In 1995, Praxis Principal Eric Novak co-authored, with Abt Associates, the Public Housing Mixed-Finance Guidebook for HUD, which is a comprehensive guide to the public housing mixed-finance development process. Praxis staff have also prepared HUD evidentiary documents and closed mixed-finance development projects for the Housing Authority of the City of Las Vegas and the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.
  
  In addition, staff of Praxis have acted as project manager and development finance consultant on public housing development projects that did not include mixed finance, for the Cambridge Housing Authority, Manchester Housing Authority, Boston Housing Authority, Hartford Housing Authority, the Housing Authority of the City of Las Vegas and the Clark County Housing Authority. Staff of Praxis have prepared HOPE VI comprehensive revitalizations plans and applications for the New York City Housing Authority, the Hartford Housing Authority, and the Charleston, WV Housing Authority.
   

Praxis is familiar with HUD and federal regulations as they pertain to real estate development, including the mixed-finance rules, safe harbor standards, procurement rules, M/WBE participation, Section 3, Davis Bacon, Section 504, demolition/disposition, fair housing, federal environmental regulations, and the Uniform Relocation Act.