To much PR-related fanfare, the Housing Trust of Santa Fe, UnitedHealth Group and Enterprise yesterday announced a $10 million affordable housing project on the city's south side.
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Over the next year two years, Stage Coach Inn at 3360 Cerrillos Rd. will get a makeover, adding 60 affordable housing units to Santa Fe. Gov. Susana Martinez and Mayor David Coss were among many to show up at the celebration yesterday.
The new Stage Coach Apartments deal comes as part of a three-year, $50 million affordable housing investment from UnitedHealth, $22 million of which will go to strictly to in-state projects.
"To provide $22 million of your $50 million right here in New Mexico to various communities throughout the state, we can't thank you enough," Martinez told the crowd.
The projects are funded through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. In a nutshell, the Santa Fe-based Housing Trust proposed the Stage Coach project to the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, which gives out federal tax credits to low-income housing projects every year.
After the MFA awarded the $10 million in tax credits to the Stage Coach project, UnitedHealth became the investor. As a result, UnitedHealth gets to divert $10 million it would have paid in federal taxes to the Stage Coach project.
Enterprise acts as the middleman handling the finances. The Stage Coach project will take 18-22 months to complete.
