Santa Fe-area nonprofits and developers are clamoring for the city to make its first scheduled distribution of money set aside for affordable housing.

City officials are expected to decide this spring which projects will get a share of about $1.2 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and capital-infrastructure money earmarked for such projects.

While the grants wouldn't pay the entire cost of any one project, the cash could help fill the gap between what's available now and what's needed to put roofs over more low- and middle-income city residents.

Money accumulated in the trust fund so far has come from repayment of city loans by Tierra Contenta, the southwest-side development overseen by a nonprofit corporation to create housing opportunities. Future funds will come from private developments that the city requires to either provide low-cost housing or contribute cash.

Mayor David Coss and other Community Development Commission members on Monday recommended the city hand out $500,000 to four Santa Fe nonprofits, but they are still weighing how to allocate about $700,000 for infrastructure, such as street and utility improvements.

Among pending requests is money for developments by the usual affordable-housing players — Santa Fe Community Housing Trust and Homewise — but also a private developer who says his project will address a gap in housing services.

Jeff Branch applied for more than half a million dollars in city funding to get his south-side Cielo Azul development off the ground. Initial staff recommendations turned down the request, but the committee ruled Monday to take another look at it during a special meeting next week.

"We are so challenged right now in terms of getting funding," Branch explained. "Today we are just looking for help anywhere we can. ... We are groveling, in case you haven't figured it out."

Among other candidates for the unallocated cash is the Village Sage development planned by the Housing Trust in Tierra Contenta. The first rental project of its kind in the city, it would offer apartments for "special needs" tenants referred by one of 13 cooperating social-service agencies. The trust is expecting to start construction in July and needs about $161,000 to pay for infrastructure.

"It's a very important project from a service perspective because of who it helps," said Sharron Welsh, trust director, when she made a presentation to the board last month. "People should have rental housing they can view as their permanent home and have the same sense of neighborhood and community that they would have in a homeownership situation."

Homewise asked for up to $750,000 to bolster what will become city-owned infrastructure for its project on Old Las Vegas Highway, which will include at least 25 homes that would be part of the city's affordable-housing program.

Of the money the commission did recommend for allocation, grants of $125,000 each would go to the Housing Trust and Homewise to be used for down-payment assistance for home purchases by income-qualified buyers; $50,000 would go to St. Elizabeth Shelter for rehabilitation of its transitional housing units; $100,000 would go to Santa Fe Youth Shelters to build rental housing for homeless youths; and another $100,000 would add to a low-cost, energy-efficiency loan program operated by Homewise.

The commission plans to meet again Monday to discuss the remaining funds and applications. City Council committees will receive the commission's recommendation and have final authority.

Coss said he hoped officials would use the money to best help the community weather the current economic storm.

"I have been looking at things in the new light of how many jobs we are creating and how many people we are helping," he said, noting he wants to spend all the money that City Council had earmarked for affordable housing projects.

Although the trust fund would have received revenue from a transfer tax on sales of high-priced homes that was rejected by voters in a special March election, the pool of cash still has opportunity to grow and be spent under current city policies.

New money would roll into the fund if and when two high-profile developments come online. Instead of building certain units to sell to low-income buyers, some developers have opted to pay fees. More than $700,000 would come from Villas at the Lensic, and another $500,000 is expected from a condo project on the Plaza by First National Bank. But the timing of those contributions depends on when the developers get closer to construction. Another funding source already in place comes from repayment of loans the city issued to its first affordable-housing partner, Tierra Contenta Corp.

As the city crafts its future Capital Infrastructure Improvements bonding plans, some additional money might get allocated to the fund, but each funding cycle is divided according to the wishes of the City Council.

Kathy McCormick, director of the city department that oversees affordable housing — Housing and Community Development — said she has lots of other ideas for generating revenue for the program, but she's not interested in introducing new plans in the wake of controversy over the transfer tax. For the next six months, she said, her staff will focus on the Northwest Quadrant plan. That city-sponsored project would involve a public-private partnership to build up to 700 homes.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.