Features

The Berkeley City Council approved a HUD Section 108 loan guarantee of up to $4 million for the Jubilee Village development Tuesday after first readjusting the amount which the project’s developers must come up with. The loan is planned for the purchase of the property only, and will not go towards the development itself. 

Jubilee Village is a planned 125-unit affordable housing project to be built on property bounded by San Pablo Avenue and 10th Street and Carleton and Parker streets. The project is being developed jointly by Jubilee Restoration, a non-profit arm of the Missionary Church of God in Christ, and the Related Companies of California, which has developed several affordable and urban multifamily housing projects in California. 

The council initially voted to use the HUD Section 108 loan monies to assume 90 percent of the cost of the land purchase or $4 million, whichever is lower. When Councilmember Miriam Hawley, who initially supported those numbers, changed her vote and defeated the measure, the developers agreed to accept 20 percent of the liability for the land purchase. The measure then passed. 

Hawley said afterwards that her decision to change her vote on the liability issue was not based upon concerns about either Jubilee Restoration or the Related Companies of California, but was merely a “fiscally sound” measure to keep the city from risking all of its HUD loan monies on one project. 

Construction of the project is estimated for March of 2005. Plans for the project have not yet gone through the city’s planning process.