Administering LA's most complex affordable housing NOFA — from scratch, within a tight deadline
Client: Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency
Service Area: NOFA administration
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117 days
App Deadline to Approval
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$1.56B
Total Funding Requested
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245
Program Applications Reviewed
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1,530
Affordable Units in Pipeline
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$256.5M
Funding Awarded
The Challenge
LACAHSA launched its inaugural NOFA deploying $240M+ across nine financing products — pre-development loans, construction, permanent financing, rental subsidies, grants, and more. As a brand-new agency with no precedent, no templates, and no review infrastructure, they needed a partner who could build the entire administrative process from scratch while the clock was running.
Our Approach
CTY was contracted in early December, shortly before the NOFA launch date of December 16, 2025. The NOFA had already been drafted by another firm. Nine financing products meant nine scoring rubrics. With 127 projects submitting up to four applications each, CTY coordinated four consulting firms and 16 reviewers — building the systems to keep every review consistent, fair, and on schedule. CTY also served as a strategic advisor to LACAHSA leadership, flagging risks and optics, and guiding decision-making.
Deliverables
Macro-driven scoring rubric tool with financial workbook extraction
Threshold review tracker and scoring dashboard
Applicant Q&A responses and communication templates
Threshold, scoring, and appeal response letters
Board and IRC memos for all review phases
Award letters for all 20 recommended projects
Closing checklist and coordination templates (in progress)
The Result
LACAHSA completed its review and award cycle in 117 days — faster than most comparable LA and state programs. The tools and templates CTY built were central to this: without them, the same process would have taken nearly twice the hours and carried far greater risk of error and inconsistency.
“CTY has been a key partner in launching many of our new lending programs, including supporting our application intake process by developing sophisticated tools that streamlined our scoring and notification processes, facilitating our first loan closings, and preparing our underwriting guidelines. Additionally, the firm’s experience with community land trusts has also informed the creation of our loan products for social housing. We appreciate very much the firm’s collaborative spirit and ability to execute within a compressed timeframe.”