The Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) has announced its seventh new partnership to build affordable housing in East Austin for families making between 30 percent and 80 percent of the city's Median Annual Income (between approximately $29,300 and $78,100 for a 4-person household.)

The Vi Collina Apartments will be a 4.94-acre mixed-income community of 170 units at 2401 East Oltorf Street in the East Riverside/Oltorf neighborhood. They are being developed in partnership with Saigebrook Development and O-SDA Industries. The complex is scheduled to open in 2021.

AHFC made possible the financing for the development from three different sources:

• In November, the AHFC Board approved a loan of $3.5 million in gap financing to acquire the land;
• In June, AHFC issued approximately $24 million in Multi-family Housing Revenue Bonds to finance the construction; and,
• In April, TDHCA approved an allocation of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which allow private capital entities to offset a portion of their federal tax liability in exchange for investing in building or preserving affordable housing.

“Saigebrook Development and O-SDA Industries have been good partners in the past in pursuing the City’s Strategic Housing Blueprint to expand affordable housing options for families,” said Rosie Truelove, director of Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department for the City of Austin. 

“When completed, Vi Collina will expand the inventory of quality, affordable, accessible housing and creating mixed-income communities,” Truelove said.

This partnership is another step forward toward achieving Austin’s affordable housing goals made possible by the voter-approved 2018 referendum for a $250M Affordable Housing General Obligation Bond Program, delivering rental housing, homeownership, home repair and strategic land acquisition.

The Vi Collina development is in accordance with the goals set forth in the Austin Strategic Housing Blueprint by creating income-restricted units in high-opportunity areas and locations near mobility corridors across the city—as well as in gentrifying areas to provide additional affordable housing options for households who might otherwise be displaced from their neighborhoods.