FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

October 14, 2024

MEDIA CONTACT: Tia Blount, VP Public Affairs & Communications tia.blount@hocmc.org

Kensington, Md. – Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County (HOC) President & Executive Director Chelsea Andrews will highlight the successes of the innovative Housing Production Fund (HPF) to a global audience of mayors from 40 countries at the upcoming Bloomberg CityLab summit.

More than 500 mayors, policymakers, innovators and others from six continents will gather Oct. 14-16 in Mexico City for the eleventh annual event, which is organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies in conjunction with the Aspen Institute.

The HPF is a $100 million revolving loan fund that provides low-cost construction financing for mixed-income, publicly-owned new developments. Created in partnership with  Montgomery County in 2021, HOC currently projects that the HPF will contribute to the creation of over 3,000 new housing units by 2030. The innovative local financing model has been covered extensively in national media, including the New York Times and National Public Radio (NPR) and was awarded the 2024 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.

“I’m honored to represent HOC to such a distinguished international audience and to share Montgomery County’s progressive, dynamic thought leadership in creating the innovative HPF to address the critical shortage of affordable housing,” said Andrews.

“Bloomberg Philanthropies has supported many cities’ innovation efforts and we are looking forward to showcasing them and more at our eleventh CityLab summit. We hope they inspire other cities to raise their ambitions, learn from one another, and spread ideas that can move the world forward,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City.

The HPF is the financing vehicle for 13 projects in HOC’s real estate development pipeline, including The Laureate, HOC’s 268-unit mixed-income, mixed-use development in the Derwood community of Rockville that opened in 2023, and Hillandale Gateway at the interchange between New Hampshire Avenue and the Capital Beltway in Silver Spring. HOC broke ground on the 463-unit mixed-income, mixed-use, intergenerational community Sept. 18. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2027.

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About HOC

HOC serves more than 20,000 Montgomery County households through a variety of innovative housing programs. HOC owns more than 9,400 apartment, townhome and single-family home rental properties, provides rental assistance to more than 7,700 low-income households through the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and an additional 1,600 households through other types of subsidized housing programs. HOC has also financed more than 4,000 affordable units for other developers and currently has a pipeline of 13 projects in various stages of the development process from design to construction. It has helped more than 2,000 households purchase a home through homeownership and mortgage finance programs. Visit HOC.