03/18/2022

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Come visit us at our booth! at the 2022 Santa Fe Home Show & Remodelers Showcase March 19-20th at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center - We're available to answer your questions. Saturday 10-5 & Sunday 10-4. See you there!

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We’re Hiring A Deputy Director

The Deputy Director is one of the most critical positions in the organization with a focus on day-to-day operations. The core goals of the Deputy Director will be increasing efficiency and growing impact, while also improving staff effectiveness/satisfaction, record keeping, reporting to funders, and related aspects of operations. The successful candidate will be expected to manage day-to-day operations of all consumer housing programs. It is envisioned that the Deputy Director would eventually serve as a successor to the Executive Director.

For more information visit: https://housingtrustonline.org/careers

The Housing Trust is committed to fostering a diversity and inclusive staff and leadership that reflects the communities we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

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Housing Trust Awarded City and Federal Funding for Housing Programs

The Housing Trust has received two grants from the City of Santa Fe Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The two awards include $500,000 to support first-time homebuyers with down payment assistance and $20,000 for a community design process for housing focused on HIV+ seniors. The Housing Trust has operated the only federally funded HIV+ homeownership programs since the 1990’s.

The Housing Trust also received a renewal of our Federal Continuum of Care (CoC) grants which provide rental assistance for chronically unhoused community members. For many years these programs have given stable housing opportunities to people with disabilities experiencing chronic homelessness. We are honored to be a part of the ongoing collective effort to make being unhoused a thing of the past in Santa Fe County.

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Arroyo Oeste Subdivision to Begin Construction this Spring

Our next affordable homeownership project in Tierra Contenta is almost ready to begin vertical construction. The partnership with Arete homes is the first of two phases that will provide much needed affordable homes as well as high-quality entry-level market rate housing. To date The Housing Trust has built more than 750 homes for sale and over 200 rental units in the greater Santa Fe area.

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Santa Fe Facing Unprecedented Affordability Challenges

In our nearly 30 years of working on housing in Santa Fe, we’ve never seen housing affordability issues at the scale we are seeing today. A long-standing housing shortage has been exacerbated by the pandemic driven “Zoom Boom.” With 2021 housing data trickling in, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of just how urgent the housing affordability issues are becoming.

A recent study by Homewise found that the median home sales price increased 30% in just one year, setting all- time records while incomes have remained largely flat. This recent article from the Santa Fe New Mexican includes quotes from our Executive Director and a link to the report.

Similarly, data from commercial realtor CBRE about rental affordability shows that average rents in apartment complexes topped $1500 a month and have nearly doubled in Santa Fe over the last 10 years. It’s important to note that this data includes a significant portion of income restricted affordable rental housing, so market rate rents have likely risen dramatically higher than this. But there is some good news in CBRE’s data, it looks like the addition of lots of new rental housing should start to stabilize rent increases towards the end of this year as the new housing supply starts to become more in balance with demand.

For more information about what we should be doing to combat this unprecedented affordability crisis, take a look at the Santa Fe Housing Action Coalition’s Policy Platform page.

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Homebuyer Assistance Programs

The Housing Trust operates a range of housing programs spanning from chronic homelessness to post-purchase and foreclosure counseling. But the core of our program has always been to provide assistance to local first-time homebuyers. We offer HUD-certified credit counseling, homebuyer education, income certification for discount homes through City and County programs, as well as direct financial assistance to help with down payment and closing costs. One of our most popular programs is MI$aver, a second mortgage loan that helps buyers avoid having to pay mortgage insurance, which can save people up to $200 a month. This flexible program has higher income limits and no limit for Hispanic families. For more information on our loans check out our Homebuyer Assistance Fact Sheet.

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Connect with us on Facebook

Please follow our Facebook page to keep up to date with new programs and developments. If you’ve worked with the Housing Trust before, please take a moment to rate and review us on Facebook and Google.

The Housing Trust was established in 1992 and since then has developed 700+ affordable homes and over 200 affordable rental apartments, counseled nearly 5,500 potential homeowners, and provided down payment assistance and purchase subsidies to 2,500 lower-income families. It operates a community land trust with 90 scattered site units and has also assisted more than 500 renters through special programs for unhoused and chronically disabled clients.