The renovation of 55 naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) apartments at 515 Thayer Avenue in Silver Spring was recently completed. Montgomery County assisted MHP, a nonprofit developer based in Silver Spring, with part of the financing to complete this project.
“At 515 Thayer, we are protecting tenants from displacement and preserving NOAH housing before it was lost to rising rents,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said. “In FY22, the County committed $69 million in low-cost loans to support long-term control of rents on over 1,200 units, including preserving 627 units in 11 properties and producing 587 new units in six properties—which includes repurposed office buildings and on church-owned land.”
MHP purchased the property in 2016 to preserve the affordable rental community. The Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) facilitated a $6 million HIF loan in 2021 “to support the recapitalization and full renovation of the property,” according to a press release. “The HIF loan provided by Montgomery County supports income-restricted affordability for 48 of the 55 apartment units, i.e., three housing units priced for tenants with incomes at 15 percent of the area median income (AMI); five units priced at 50 percent of the AMI; and 40 units priced at 60 percent of the AMI. The property includes 31 one-bedroom units; 23 two-bedroom units; and one four-bedroom unit.“
The following entities provided additional funding: Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC; the State of Maryland Community Development Administration; Citi; Freddie Mac Multifamily; Enterprise Housing Credit Investments; LLC; Kaiser Permanente; NeighborWorks America and JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. The total investment from private and public funds was $21 million.
“This effort at 515 Thayer preserved affordable housing in the Purple Line corridor, which is important.” Aseem Nigam, director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs said.
