Community Economics, Inc.

COMMUNITY ECONOMICS, INC.

Community Economics, Inc. (CEI) provides nonprofit organizations and public agencies with expert technical assistance in the financing and development of affordable housing. CEI has a broad range of expertise in all aspects of affordable housing development and related areas of real estate and community development.

CEI was established in 1976 to address a lack of technical expertise in the emerging field of nonprofit affordable housing development. As federal housing funds have decreased, the nonprofit sector has become the primary producer of affordable housing. Through direct technical assistance to nonprofit developers, and through involvement with local, state, and national housing policy issues, CEI has been at the forefront of the affordable housing movement, developing creative solutions and resources to meet the housing needs of low income people.

CEI staff work with clients from the earliest conceptual stages of development - helping to assemble a development team and secure funding - through the successful completion of construction and commencement of operations. Through this project-specific technical assistance and through long-term relationships with clients, CEI strives to enhance the capacity of nonprofit housing developers.

CEI's primary expertise is in the financing of affordable housing, having worked with a broad assortment of federal, state and local funding programs as well as conventional bank lenders. Since 1987, CEI has developed a particular expertise in the use of the federal and state low income housing tax credit programs, and has facilitated the development of thousands of affordable housing units using those programs.

Typical clients include nonprofit housing development organizations, as well as social service agencies providing housing for their special needs clients. CEI has also worked with tenant organizations and groups forming limited equity cooperatives. Public agencies frequently hire CEI to assist them in evaluating housing proposals from private developers or in devising housing priorities and programs.