Catalyst Housing Group Adds to Growing Essential Housing Portfolio

LARKSPUR, Calif., Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Catalyst Housing Group partnered with the California Community Housing Agency to purchase Summit at Sausalito, its 14th Essential Housing property. The acquisition marks Catalyst's fifth of the summer, all part of their statewide push to permanently transition market-rate housing to rent-restricted communities serving middle-income households.

"Our unique financing model, and partnership with multiple state agencies, enable us to protect existing tenants from the threat of displacement while providing communities with an immediate supply of desperately-needed middle-income housing," said Catalyst founder Jordan Moss. "The long-term community benefits will prove to be as impactful, where all economic upside is transferred directly to our portfolio's underlying municipalities."

Launched in 2019, Catalyst's innovative model spawned California's first governmental entity focused exclusively on middle-income housing production. This entirely new asset class, which Catalyst coined "Essential Housing," provides affordable rental housing to California's essential workforce - the nurses, teachers, first responders, civil servants and others who increasingly earn too much to qualify for traditional affordable housing, yet not enough to live directly within the communities they serve.

With picturesque views of the Bay, Summit at Sausalito (198 units) joins Fountains at Emerald Park (324 units, Dublin), The Breakwater Apartments (400 units, Huntington Beach), Elan Huntington Beach (274 units, Huntington Beach), and The Exchange at Bayfront (172 units, Hercules) as Catalyst's most recent acquisitions. Over the past two years, Catalyst's Essential Housing acquisitions total more than $2 billion and 4,000 units of premier multifamily rental communities purchased to address California's growing income inequality and the related middle-income housing crisis.

"We are proud that Marin is home to two Catalyst properties," said Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters. "It is crucial for Southern Marin to take care of our renters, especially given the impacts of the pandemic, and this an important strategy to further racial equity in our county while helping us meet our affordable housing goals."

To complement its acquisition in Sausalito, Catalyst has formed a partnership with the Marin City Sausalito School District and seeded it with a $100,000 contribution to Essential Housing Fund, Catalyst's nonprofit arm. The donation will provide additional rental subsides to local elementary and middle school teachers, as well as other District employees.

"We are thrilled to partner with Catalyst and appreciate their recognition of how teachers and other essential workers are so integral to our communities," said Itoco Garcia, Superintendent of the Sausalito Marin City School District. "A key part of our strategy to successfully desegregate the District is our Culturally Responsive Educator Equity Development Teacher of Color pipeline program. This partnership with Catalyst will allow us to attract and retain high quality teachers of all backgrounds, and especially teachers of color and bilingual teachers, to our community. It's untenable for teachers to spend so much of their income on rent and so much of their time commuting from lower cost regions. Many of our staff spend up to two hours a day in the car to serve the students and families of our community. This partnership will keep SMCSD employees out of their cars and placing them directly within their community, two key factors for a climate & social justice focused school district."

SOURCE Catalyst Housing Group