PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:  June 2, 2020

Contact:  Kate Peterson | 303.830.3443 |  kpeterson@mercyhousing.org

With three loans, Mercy Community Capital will help create greatly needed affordable housing with services—supporting families with low incomes at a critical time for people with low incomes.

DENVER— As a leading Community Development Financial Institution, Mercy Community Capital (MCC) continues its mission to provide financing to support affordable housing and community development across the nation. With their home office in Denver, CO, they are excited to be contributing to the affordable housing supply in their own backyard. The three loans will support different communities across the state and will foster vibrant, healthy communities across three locales:

• Academy Place – Broomfield, CO

Brought to MCC by Summit Housing Group, Inc. (SHG) for land acquisition financing, this loan acquires 2.73 acres of land in the heart of Broomfield at 7105 W. 120^th Ave. This will be developed into 50 units of affordable housing for low-income families and will be MCC and SHG’s first loan together. SHG is working with Broomfield FISH, a local nonprofit helping families in need and a member of the Family Resource Center Association, to provide services and resident placement for the project. With one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, community space, open space for outdoor activities, and ample parking, this development offers a rich variety of opportunities for residents. Academy Place will be the first affordable low-income family apartment development in Broomfield in over 22 years.

• Greyhound Park Apartments – Commerce City, CO

Greyhound Park Apartments will offer 223 units of affordable housing that will contribute to the redevelopment of the Mile High Greyhound Park in Commerce City, which will include 543 multifamily units and 112 single-family units, and 160 townhomes accompanied by retail space and educational facilities. The city is a big supporter of these developments as they are facing a shortage of over 3,000 affordable homes. Delwest, the master developer of the 65-acre site is placing an emphasis on resident services by hiring a Program Services Coordinator to partner and oversee the onsite delivery of this support for residents.

• Lyons Valley Homes – Lyons, CO

Not far from Denver, this loan provides land acquisition in Lyons, CO through Summit Housing Group, Inc., (SHG) for the to-be-built Lyons Valley Townhomes. They will be acquiring 10 acres of land to be developed into 40 affordable homes for low-income families. A 2013 flood, caused widespread devastation across Northern Colorado and Lyons lost 76 to 94 flood-destroyed homes, including 32 mobile homes. SHG received Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds from the Department of Housing at the State of Colorado in response to these floods. This will be the first affordable housing property in Lyons.

These loans come at a crucial time for the state. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that Colorado has a shortage of 114,940 rental homes, affordable and available, for extremely low-income renters, while 74% of extremely low-income renter households have severe cost burden. These estimates preceded the COVID-19 crisis, and the need for affordable housing is expected to grow.

About Mercy Community Capital

For more than three decades, Mercy Community Capital (MCC), a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), has provided financing to support affordable housing and community development across the nation. MCC has focused exclusively on funding affordable housing and essential community infrastructure projects that support affordable housing. By collaborating with socially responsible developers, MCC has helped finance the development of single and multifamily homes for rental and homeownership. These developments help underserved communities, including people with low incomes, veterans, seniors, farmworkers, people who have experienced homelessness, and people with disabilities. MCC is a subsidiary of the affordable housing nonprofit Mercy Housing, Inc. (MHI), headquartered in Denver, CO. For more information, please visit mercycommunitycapital.org.