The City of Glendale is attempting to expand the financial assistance it’s offering to first-time homebuyers contemplating a purchase in one of the 40 affordable housing units currently in the works.

The City submitted a grant application for mortgage assitance funds for 35 units in September of 2007 on 339 West Doran Street. 24 of those 35 units were slated for low-to-moderate-income households.

Then, in October, city housing officials were authorized to negotiate an agreement with the developer of the project to include the parcel on 331 West Doran Street that the City had purchased earlier.

As the terms of the development agreement are finalized with the developer, Community Development Housing officials are expected to go before the State Housing Authority to request an additional $390,000 in mortgage assistance funds to cover the extra 16 units included in the expanded Doran Gardens Project.

The State Building Equity in Neighborhoods Program provides down payment assistance loans of $30,000 per affordable housing unit. If ownership of a unit changes hands, the money would be paid back ot the city and placed into an account for reuse as mortgage assistance for other low-to-moderate-income first-time home buyers. After 45 years, the affordability period of the unit sunsets, and the loan is forgiven.

The project has received favorable attention from the development community for its groundbreaking use of federal New Market Tax Credits. Glendale and Pasadena pooled approximately $7.5 million to purchase tax credits which were subsquently sold to Washington Mutual Bank for a 39% reutrn of $3miliion. This money provided the development capital for the project.

Applications for the Doran Gardens Project will be available starting January of 2009 according to the Community Development and Housing Department.