NJPLAN

In New Jersey’s competitive real estate market, the need to create and preserve affordable housing is especially critical. For many nonprofit affordable housing developers, the obstacle is often access to quick, low interest financing.

Since TRF’s New Jersey Predevelopment Loan and Acquisition Fund for Nonprofits (NJPLAN) program was established more than a year ago, TRF has committed financing to nine affordable housing developers across the state, including several who serve special needs populations, helping them access inexpensive, early stage capital to jumpstart their projects.

Working in coordination with the New Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency’s Special Needs Housing Trust Fund, the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, NJPLAN is helping organizations such as Allies Inc. and Jawonio NJ Inc. address the desperate demand for special needs housing.

With acquisition loans from NJPLAN, these organizations are able to purchase single family homes in well established neighborhoods that can then be retrofitted to serve individuals with developmental disabilities.

For some borrowers, NJPLAN has provided flexible predevelopment capital. Moorestown Ecumenical Neighborhood Development (MEND) received an NJPLAN loan for the arduous planning phase for two new affordable rental housing buildings in Moorestown, an affluent suburb where affordable homes are rare.

“The NJPLAN loan was an indispensable part of the whole development process and TRF’s staff became an important part of our development team, providing valuable knowledge and expertise,” explains Matthew Reilly, President and CEO of MEND, which recently began construction on its project.

The apartments are expected to be complete by March 2007 and a majority of the units in the buildings will be home to blind or visually impaired and physically disabled individuals.