The affordable housing crisisdoesn't seem to be getting better. At the moment, there is aperfect storm driving housing prices and rents up. The stormincludes low supply, increased demand, poor wage growth and a lackof proper financing tools, all of which are helping to drive rentsup.

"We've been seeing a huge influx of local and state resourcesfor affordable housing in California, bringing a much largerpipeline of transactions," Cecile Chalifour, westdivision manager for Community Development Bankingat Chase, tells GlobeSt.com. "However, we'refacing an ongoing and perfect storm: low production of affordablehousing over the last 10 years with low supply, increased demandleading to higher rent expectations from landlords and investors,and a growing disconnect between rent increases and income growth.As a result, the affordable housing crisis is growing. Although wehave more resources today, high development costs for land andconstruction are making it harder to build financially viableaffordable housing projects."

It isn't only a severe supply demand imbalance, but also ashortage of funding tools and solutions to bring more affordablehousing product to the market. "The complexity of the tools tofinance affordable housing can also present challenges," saysChalifour. "Developers and financial partners spend a tremendousamount of time, capacity and financial resources to securefunds and structure transactions. Despite some challenges, this isan industry of creative players, so there has been a lot ofinnovation and improvements resulting from those challenges."