The Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development under the Local Housing Trust Fund Program.

The grant will provide first-time homebuyer assistance to low- and moderate-income families as well as financial assistance to support the development of affordable rental projects.

The Housing Trust Fund will use $840,000 of the funding to provide 30-year deferred-payment down-payment loans up to $45,000 per household to assist first-time low- to moderate-income homebuyers in purchasing a home in their community.

In implementing the program, HTF will work with community lenders that can provide first mortgages. The program will target eligible cities and communities throughout the county, with particular focus in North Santa Barbara County, where home values dropped significantly in the past several years.

Another $360,000 in grant funds will be used to assist affordable housing projects countywide that serve extremely low-income households and individuals who earn less than 35 percent of the area median income.

The Housing Trust Fund was one of only nine grant awardees statewide that received a combined total of $16.25 million in Local Housing Trust Fund Program grants.

Funding for the Local Housing Trust Fund Program was authorized under the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006 (Proposition 1C) Affordable Housing Innovation Fund. The program is administered by the state HCD and provides matching grant funds to eligible nonprofit, city and county applicants to support Local Housing Trust Funds dedicated to the creation or preservation of affordable housing. HTF has allocated $1.5 million of its housing trust monies as LHTFP matching funds.

The Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County is a private nonprofit countywide financing agency whose mission is to raise financial resources to expand workforce and affordable housing opportunities for the residents of Santa Barbara County.

For more information, click here or call 805.685.1949.

— Jennifer McGovern is the president and chief executive officer of the Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County.