Housing Development vies for $2.8M assist

October 22, 2007; As originally appeared in The Fairfield County Business Journal

Housing Development Fund is a finalist for a $2.8 million grant for affordable-housing initiatives to be awarded in December.

In early October the Stamford-based organization was named a semifinalist in the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance, sponsored by the Wachovia Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network.

The organizations award $5.5 million to organizations with at least $50 million in lending assets, and $2.8 million to those with between $10 million and $50 million.

Founded in 1989, Housing Development Fund has helped more than 500 people purchase their first home by helping make up the difference between a mortgage and what a family can afford.

The organization claims to have the largest public-private pool of mortgage financing for affordable housing in Connecticut.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing, a Washington, D.C., organization with an office in New Haven also was named one of 10 finalists.