To see the increased construction of affordable housing in vast El Paso County, Texas, a new mechanism for funding such projects has been set up.
Members of the El Paso County Commissioners Court have given their unanimous approval to creating a public nonprofit body that will be capable of providing debt and financial assistance to developers as well as would-be homeowners.
Called the El Paso County Housing Finance Corporation, the body will help facilitate the building of affordable residential units via revenue financed by bonds, not taxpayer dollars.
According to Ana Schumacher, assistant El Paso County Attorney, the corporation will provide a means to finance the “cost of residential ownership and development that will provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing for residents.”
The corporation could also make it possible for developers to convert properties they already own into affordable housing.
The formation of the corporation comes as various published reports peg the average rent in El Paso County at just under $1,100, with that average, according to the site Zillow, coming in at just above $1,500 for units within the city of El Paso.
March 17, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
